Use this tag for claims about the law. This must be almost always be accompanied by a country tag, such as [united-states] to clarify which country's laws the claim is about.
Questions tagged [law]
278 questions
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Is gun control effective?
I have seen numerous arguments about gun control, in the sense of laws restricting gun ownership or possession, and whether widespread gun possession affects crime rates, and each side is happy to pull out studies that are favorable to their side. …

David Thornley
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Are there any laws preventing the copying of keys containing a DO NOT DUPLICATE stamp?
While I worked at Walmart during college in the states, we would copy keys for customers, unless the key looked like this.
We were told that it was illegal to copy such keys, however, customers would regularly tell us it was in fact legal.
Are…

Himarm
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Is the death penalty an effective deterrent?
There is a lot of clutter from anti-death penalty sites, which makes it hard to find all the research. They often cite statistics like those explained in this website, including the chart below that shows that murder rates in states without the…
Dogmafrog
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Does New York City legally recognize 31 different genders?
Several news sources (for example, The Odyssey Online and the Toronto Sun in 2016) claim that New York City recognizes 31 distinct genders. On the other hand, an article from the Huffington Post claims that New York City just started offering a…

Robert Columbia
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Did Abner Schoenwetter spend 6.5 years in jail because he used plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes when importing lobsters from Honduras?
Forbes states that:
Abner Schoenwetter was importing seafood to sell to U.S. restaurants for over 12 years from Honduras. Those shipments were overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who inspected the shipments and found everything…

CuriousIndeed
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Does Lebanon ban the diary of Anne Frank?
According to factslides, a reddit post, Wikipedia, and the Wall Street Journal, the Diary of Anne Frank is banned in Lebanon.
According to a reddit comment this is "rubbish". Other news reports a single private school in Lebanon removing references…

gerrit
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Is it legal to shoot groups of Native Americans in some US States?
At a young age, I remember being told by a teacher that if there are five or more native Americans in a group, it is legal to shoot them, because it is considered a war party. The teacher told me that this was an old law which is still in effect…

Evorlor
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Are U.S companies legally obligated to maximize profits for shareholders?
A statement that I've heard over and over, is that U.S. companies are legally obligated to maximize profits for shareholders, and that this explains why companies act socially unresponsible.
In this speech at Netroots Nation, Al Franken says:
it…

Vetle
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Do laws exist that say restaurants must serve customers who request tap water?
My mother claimed the other day that it is a "state law" that any restaurant must serve customers tap water upon request, therefore not requiring customers to buy a (flavored) drink or (overpriced) bottled water. I asked her how she knows that, she…

Sam I Am
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Can you have your lunch at your work-desk in France?
According to this NPR article and this podcast episode (published June 2022):
The French labor code prohibits workers from eating lunch in the workplace.
Is this a real French law, and does violating it have actual legal consequences, or is it…

Agnishom Chattopadhyay
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Does the average American unwittingly commit three felonies a day?
Harvey Silverglate has written a book, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, in which he claims, according to the Amazon blurb:
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats…
user4216
54
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Was a Canadian father jailed for referring to his trans son as his daughter?
A recent PostMilennial article claims:
After the hearing, Hoogland gave an interview to The Federalist saying that people cannot change sex, and that mega-doses of exogenous testosterone would damage his vulnerable, biological female child's…

HanMah
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Does Lincoln County, Oregon require only white people to wear masks?
According to the New York Post:
Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people
Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings be worn in public
Oregon county issues face mask…

Paul Draper
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Are US workers legally required to pay income taxes?
In the 2006 film America: Freedom to Fascism, several interviews are shown which claim that American workers do not need to pay income tax. Specifically, this clip claims that
There is no law which requires the average American worker (in the
…

Reubend
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Did the 2nd Amendment limit the purchase of cannons from the day it was passed?
Joe Biden says in a BBC snippet that
the Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people that could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn't buy a cannon.
Is that really so? Did the 2nd Amendment…

Fizz
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