Lamar Smith
Anti-gay Texas Republican Congressman Lamar Smith is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for jurors.
Attorneys are not prohibited from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity during jury selection by federal courts. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to take a position last year on whether Supreme Court rulings that prohibit removal based on race or sex should include sexual orientation.
A spokesman for Smith told the Colorado Independent that he has “no plans to move the bill at this time.”
The bill was introduced last month by Rep. Steve Rothman, D- New Jersey, and is co-sponsored by Rep. Susan Davis, D-California, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat from the District of Columbia.
But Smith’s opposition to the bill means it is unlikely to get a hearing.
what do you expect, he’s a republican. I don’t know why people are always shocked when republicans do this kind of thing. And it always amazes me that all 5 gay republicans in Dallas defend these people.
Such a bill would provide a great “out” to people who don’t want to serve on a jury. Just make your appearance, tell the judge you’re homosexual and you’re off the hook since there isn’t a way to prove otherwise.
James, maybe we could use it as a recruiting tool, since that’s, you know, what we people do. We’d issue official gay cards to get out of jury duty.
sometimes you just need to roll your eyes at idiots such as Mr. Smith and hit the IGNORE button because its just stupid, ignorant chitter chatter…and only shows his level of intelligence.
For me serving on the Dallas County Grand Jury was an eye opening, educational, even personally rewarding experience. Yes, at times it was very distubing, it is though a very nessecery part of the American judicial system. Grand jurors are not selected from a central jury pool, and being a 3 month commitment difficult to fill. When I reported last fall there were only 16 people ordered to appear for the 14 GJ panel spots (12 + 2 alternates).
Limiting the pool of persons willing to submit voluntarily to a 3 month commitment is ridiculous. Indeed last year the state of Texas modified the rules allowing counties to keep a Grand Jury impaneled 6 months in order to fulfill the needs of the courts. Shrink the available pool, stupid…