Comment Re:The law is valid (Score 1) 446
Laws have existed for various odd things in the UK in the past, and certain examples like that and being allowed to kill Scots within York's walls at night were claimed to still be technically valid in widely spread urban legends. IIRC there isn't any law allowing the murder of someone in the UK that is still valid.
It's actually quite common for illegal laws to still be on the books.
In the US Mississippi hadn't bothered to ratify the Constitutional Amendment banning slavery until the mid-90s, then they did it wrong so they had to do it again in 2013. I would not be surprised if other Southern states still had segregation laws on the books. Most states still have abortion laws in violation of Roe vs. Wade, laws banning gay sex, etc. All are totally invalid under various ruling by the Supreme Court, but since actually changing them would require a couple Legislators to spend time convincing their colleagues to vote for the bill, and those colleagues may not agree with the Supreme Court, it just doesn't always happen. Especially on Roe vs. Wade -- most pro-life politicians are convinced the Supreme Court will undo that decision, and if the Supremes ever undo Roe vs. Wade then those laws magically come back to life.
I suspect Texas, Washington State, and Florida are some of the worst states for refusing to repeal bad old laws. It's very difficult to get a proposal through their Legislatures. Texas is part-time, and only meets for 140 days in odd-numbered years, Washington State requires all bills to have a single very clear purpose (so you'd need one repealing the anti-abortion law, you'd need another repealing anti-sodomy, etc.), and Florida restricts the number of Bills a Legislator can sponsor is limited, etc.