No link to the full text yet, but it appears that the Supreme Court has decided Lawrence v. Texas, and that they struck down the law banning sodomy.
Whoo hoo!
Take that, Mr. not-yet-a-Justice Ashcroft!
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
No link to the full text yet, but it appears that the Supreme Court has decided Lawrence v. Texas, and that they struck down the law banning sodomy.
Whoo hoo!
Take that, Mr. not-yet-a-Justice Ashcroft!
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
OK, here’s the slip opinion.
willie brown, speaking from inside the ranks of today’s pride parade, said there’s a possibility the two decisions were cost-free presidential election politicking to soften the domestic image of the bushies.
~wryly~
Funny how most of the commentary I’ve heard appears to assume that only homosexuals (er, gay men, since I guess gay women aren’t homosexuals in the common use of the word) engage in sodomy. Perhaps none of them have read Tom Robbins’ Still Life with Woodpecker?
Re metasilk’s comment: remember that “sodomy” by most legal definitions includes oral sex.
so you’re saying these sodomy laws weren’t intended to be anti-gay, just anti-ass-action and such?
At least some of them were intended to be anti- anything that doesn’t contribute to procreation, I think.
Well, the Texas laws specifically banned same-sex sodomy and not opposite-sex sodomy. There are states which have equal-opportunity anti-ass-action laws; the 5-justice majority pretty clearly knocks those down as well.
Justice O’Connor thought that “so long as the Equal Protection Clause requires a sodomy law to apply equally to the private consensual conduct of homosexuals and heterosexuals alike, such a law would not long stand in our democratic society.” In other words, if blow-jobs and anal-sex had to either be outlawed for everybody or legal for everybody, they would be legal for everybody. She clearly implies that a majority of people would find such a ban burdensome; I don’t know how she knows.
Redintegro Iraq,
-V.
All I can say is that (as residents of an equal-opportunity anti-sodomy state) the plan Stephen & I had to make t-shirts quoting Pete Seeger is probably not quite as funny any more. It’s just as well, though.
“I have committed crimes against nature…staying inside on sunny days.”