Court to Decide if Lawyers Can Block Gays From Juries

[cali]

Last month’s Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage were major gay rights victories. But countless questions about the legal rights of gay men and lesbians remain.

Here’s one: May gays be excluded from juries on account of their sexual orientation? The federal appeals court in California will soon decide the issue, which turns out to be surprisingly knotty.

It arose at the 2011 trial of an antitrust fight between two giant drug companies. After a potential juror appeared to reveal that he was gay, a lawyer for Abbott Laboratories used a peremptory strike — one that does not require a reason — to eliminate him from the jury pool.

An opposing lawyer objected, saying the juror “is or appears to be, could be, homosexual.”

That mattered, the lawyer said, because “the litigation involves AIDS medications” and “the incidence of AIDS in the homosexual community is well known, particularly gay men.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/us/court-weighs-exclusion-of-jurors-because-theyre-gay.html?_r=0

[B Calm]

1. Gay man on a jury that involves aids medications. I can

see where a lawyer for a giant drug company feels like that would be unfare, LOL. Instead of being a juror, he could be an expert witness.

[cali]

2. so should no men be on a jury that's determining a case about a prostrate cancer drug?

No women on a case about breast cancer drugs?

It's illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender and it should be illegal to discriminate on sexual orientation

[B Calm]

3. No

I believe it's only fair!

[theHandpuppet]

7. +1

[GeorgeGist]

4. Peremptory seems to have been ignored.

[loli phabay]

5. i missed that on first read, this should be a no goer, both sides should keep

The rigjt to peremptory strikes regardless of the reason.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. WTF??

I'm honestly struck speechless right now..