The LGBTQ+ Bar is proud to be leading the effort to prohibit exclusion from jury service on the bases of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression across the country. In 2018, the American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously approved a resolution—introduced by the LGBTQ+ Bar—urging federal, state, local, territorial and tribal courts to extend Batson v. Kentucky to prohibit discrimination against jurors on the bases of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
The LGBTQ+ Bar is proud to be leading the effort to ban the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense across the country. In 2013, The American Bar Association (ABA) unanimously approved a resolution—introduced by the LGBTQ+ Bar—calling for an end to this heinous defense strategy. Since then, the District of Columbia and the states of California, Illinois, Rhode Island, Nevada, Connecticut, Maine, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Colorado, Virginia, Vermont, Oregon, Maryland, and New Mexico have banned such defenses. Legislation is pending federally as well as in multiple states.