Questions tagged [law]
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.
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Do EU sanctions prevent Russian visitors from bringing their smartphones/toothpaste with them into the EU?
This morning a Russian media company RBC reported that (vaguely translated from Russian) "EU prohibited Russians to enter the EU with personal cars, smartphones and shampoo". A similar story ...
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Is saying "du" to a police officer illegal in Germany?
A very popular YouTuber called Bharat in Germany recently made a video where it says that it is illegal in Germany to address a police officer informally, that is, using the informal pronoun du rather ...
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Was the request to build a website in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis falsified?
I came across an article that claims that 303 Creative v Elenis uses misleading information in its filing:
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its opinion in a case in which Stewart plays a ...
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Does a Michigan law make it a felony to purposefully use the wrong gender pronouns?
Recently Fox News claimed that Michigan House passed a bill that:
[...] could make it a felony to intimidate someone by intentionally using the wrong gender pronouns, according to some legal experts.
...
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Can female virgins be legally executed in Iran?
This anonymous source claims that female virgins cannot be executed in Iran. From 'I wed Iranian girls before execution':
In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity ...
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Is it illegal in Russia to call the war in Ukraine a "war"?
Several news outlets have reported that calling the Russo-Ukrainian War a "war" is illegal in Russia since a law was passed in March 2022.
Business Insider, March 2022
Putin signed a law ...
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Did a 1982 Zimbabwean law prohibit jokes about President Canaan Banana’s name?
It is widely reported that a 1982 Zimbabwean statute prohibited jokes about Canaan Banana’s name. I’m not sure that that’s true. Is it?
The Economist:
As head of state, Mr Banana never really ...
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Will a proposed Canadian law allow minors to be euthanized without parental consent?
As reported on FoxNews. This immediately triggers my skepticism since it seems pretty extreme.
From the link above:
Creighton School of Medicine professor Charles Camosy joined 'Tucker
Carlson ...
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Does legalizing of prostitution lead to lowered spread of STIs in the general population?
I've found a number of articles claiming that legalizing prostitution is linked to lowed STIs. I could link a dozen other articles. Every one makes slightly different claims but they all seem to ...
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Does an “average-sized” power station pay over a quarter billion pounds per day when unable to generate electricity?
Given the war in Ukraine and associated sanctions on Russia and reciprocal withholding of supply, Europe is facing a gas shortage.
The UK imports very little Russian gas, but because of the reduced ...
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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 ...
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Did Facebook claim its fact-checks are legally "just opinions"?
Multiple websites and media say:
Facebook claims its 'fact-check' are just protected opinions, according to Facebook's legal team.
However, I have not found any official Facebook sources for this ...
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Has the United States only ratified 5 of 18 international treaties on human rights?
A recent opinion piece in the English edition of Le Monde Diplomatique makes passing reference to the idea that the United States "has ratified only five of the 18 international human rights ...
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Did a Wisconsin school file sexual harassment complaints over pronoun usage?
The New York Post claims
A Wisconsin school district has filed sexual harassment complaints against three middle schoolers for calling a classmate by a wrong pronoun.
They cite fox17.com as source, ...
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Does California have a dress code for drivers?
Many "crazy law" sources claim that California motor vehicle law contains a bizarre sartorial proscription.
On CNN.com, the article "Do you know why I pulled you over?" by Craig ...
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Has Dr. Fauci entered the Federal witness protection program?
In a public appearance covered by an NBC News affiliate, there is the following comment by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with context (emphasis mine) via DeSantis announces $20M funding for ...
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Are North Koreans banned from laughing for 11 days?
This article states that North Koreans face similar consequences of the leader's death anniversary as in previous years, now being banned from laughing for 11 days. Is the regime so authoritarian that ...
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Does decriminalising sex work result in increased trafficking and organised crime?
The Australian Christian Lobby sent out a campaign in relation to a proposed law to decriminalise prostitution. Part of the campaign against the law is that it will increase trafficking and organised ...
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Is Alberta ending coronavirus restrictions because of failing to provide evidence of SARS-COV2 virus existence in court?
Variations of this image circulate claiming that a man named Patrick King won a court case in which he challenged the province to provide an isolated sample of the virus, which they failed. The rumors ...
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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....
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Is there a bill in Iowa that bans the teaching of sexism, slavery, and racial segregation?
Is there a critical race theory bill in Iowa
that bans the teaching of the following topics: sexism, slavery,
racial segregation, racial discrimination, including topics related to
the enactment and ...
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Has Israel used banned weapons against the population of Palestine?
According to this graphic from the Facebook group zionistlies,
The Israeli army uses 3 internationally banned weapons in its military aggression against the unarmed civilian population of Palestine.
...
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Is a married woman in Michigan required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair?
Many sources indicate that there is a law on the books in Michigan requiring a married woman to get her husband's permission before cutting her own hair.
According to the Huffington Post article The ...
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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) ...
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Does New York restrict voting more than Georgia's new law?
Some people have claimed that New York actually restricts voting more than Georgia, even after Georgia's new Election Integrity Act.
New York’s voting laws are far more restrictive than Georgia’s by ...
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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 ...
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Were senior officals who outran their executioners pardoned in the Ottoman Empire?
According to various sources, in the Ottoman Empire, when a senior official was given a death sentence, he'd race with his executioner. If he were to win the race, the death sentence would be commuted,...
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How did the myth that student loans are non-dischargeable originate?
A fairly common myth is that student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy (USA). For example, this NPR article discusses the myth and its falsity.
While I have been able to find plenty of ...
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Are all Oreo-cookie ingredients listed in accordance with EU ingredient labelling regulations?
I have read in several places about the claim that Oreo cookies may be using titanium dioxide in their preparation. This additive, although widely used, has been recently under the suspicion of ...
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Is most intermediate level radioactive waste according to UK regulations barely radioactive?
Lester Haines writes in Sellafield's nuclear waste measured in El Reg units:
Most intermediate level waste is barely radioactive at all. If you put
a completely legal luminous watch in a barrel ...
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Does the Constitution of the US have anything to say about slavery?
The Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote an article for the 1619 Project in the New York Times, where she claimed:
The Constitution contains 84 clauses. Six deal directly with the enslaved and their enslavement,...
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Did Kamala Harris ignore anti-pedophilia California Child Protection Act of 2012?
An Open Secret (anti-pedophilia, anti-Hollywood film) posted on Twitter the following claim which was retweeted 1k+ times:
Did you know?
California Child Protection Act of 2012
Requires adults ...
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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 ...
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Has anyone ever been found either criminally or civilly liable for giving advice on a forum for plumbing/electrical/hvac/other?
I've seen on several forums (and/or members thereof) around trades where they say they don't give advice to non-pros because they're afraid the amateur will do it wrong and they'll be found liable.
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Does an HHS proposal to modify Obamacare policies allow doctors to discriminate against LGBT patients?
This article claims that
The Trump administration is moving to scrap an Obama-era policy that protected LGBTQ patients from discrimination.
However the proposal in question claims it would only be ...
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Slurping soup in New Jersey
I read once in a book of weird facts heard that slurping soup is technically illegal in New Jersey, and, looking it up, have found a ton of lists of "wacky laws" saying that this is true. Nothing I ...
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Are Australia's 5G radiation safety standards at least one hundred times laxer than of 6 other listed countries?
I saw this poster on the Facebook wall of a friend. The earliest I traced it was to Electrosensitivity Australia's Facebook wall where it was shared over 1700 times.
RADIATION LEVEL SAFETY STANDARDS
...
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Are flight attendants exempt from COVID-19 quarantine restrictions when leaving New York or entering Canada?
Are the posts below true?
fathrowaway7. 2020 Mar 27 23:54 GMT.
I’m a flight attendant.
We are still flying because we are considered “essential.” You heard about those orders to quarantine ...
user16959
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Is Rand Paul's apparent outing of Trump's whistleblower a crime? [closed]
A tweet from @SethFromThe716 is very popular
(4.2K likes at the time of this question).
It says
[U.S. Senator] Rand Paul violated the law by publicly outing the whistleblower [of President Trump], ...
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Was the Holocaust legal?
In the below image, which has been circulating on social media, it is implied that the Holocaust was legal in the same way that slavery and segregation were legal. Is this true? Was the Holocaust ...
user34550
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Can a judge let the parties of a trial resolve their disputes on "the field of battle", legally, in the US?
I read the following article by Associated Press:
The judge had the power to let the parties “resolve our disputes on the field of battle, legally,” David Ostrom said, adding in his filing that ...
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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 ...
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Are Pennsylvania motorists required to hide their cars from horses?
News sources, blogs, email chains, and periodicals publish lists of "stupid laws", which are supposedly still on the books. One particularly amusing one:
Any motorist who sights a team of horses ...
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Did the IG change his conclusion in the Sharyl Atkisson investigation?
In 2013, journalist Sharyl Atkisson accused the Obama Administration of hacking and surveillance of her computers. Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Justice, ...
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Did hundreds of thousands of people die due to lack of seat belts in the period before they were made mandatory?
In a recent interview, Tesla founder Elon Musk gives a historical reference as example of slow government reaction to public harm:
At 8m15s:
Take something like seatbelts. It was known for, I ...
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Did DOJ officials conclude no further action was warranted on the Whistleblower complaint?
The White House just accidentally sent all House Democrats its talking points regarding President Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President and the related Intelligence Community whistleblower ...
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Did the 1994 US crime bill "bring down crime"?
In 1994, the US federal government adopted the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (signed into law Sept. 13, 1994).
Ben Shapiro, host of the 'Daily Wire' podcast on YouTube, referred to it ...
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Was it ever illegal to name a pig "Napoleon" in France?
This is an oft-cited "unusual law", e.g. from The Sun:
IN FRANCE it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon, almost 200 years after his death.
Experts say the odd law exists because calling a ...
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In Alabama, if a person is found not guilty of rape, is their accuser assumed to be lying?
jessica a. m. @my2k
so the Alabama abortion criminalization bill has an extra tacked onto the end of it wherein, if a woman reports being raped and they find the person she accused not guilty, SHE ...
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Is it illegal in Alaska to wake up a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph?
DumbLaws.com claim:
While it is legal to shoot bears, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited.
The Gray Line Alaska blog repeats the claim.
There is also a ...
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