Tuesday, January 25, 2005

More Dumb Laws

The march of time looks set to claim another weird outdated state law. Last week it was Virginia's law banning fornication. Now a legislator in Washington state is seeking to take the state's "woman slander" statute off the books. The law makes it a crime to slander a woman. Well, not any woman, as the statute specifically exempts "common prostitutes" and those under 12 from being slandered. I'm not sure what that says about the Washingtonian view of hookers and little girls. The law was upheld by state Supreme Court in 1914, but the case doesn't provide any evidence of the slanderous statement.

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