What do y'all think of this? Actually, where I live(Louisiana), anal and oral sex is illegal even for heterosexual married couples! Hard to believe that in the state where Bourbon Street, New Orleans exists. It was recently upheld in the Louisiana courts. However, it's a pity that Monica and Bill didn't get together here, then we could have locked him up .. teehee
Supreme Court agrees to hear homosexual sex case
Monday, December 2, 2002 Posted: 11:09 AM EST (1609 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme
Court said Monday it would
consider whether states can punish
homosexuals for having sex, a case
that tests the constitutionality of
sodomy laws in 13 states.
The justices will review the prosecution of
two men under a 28-year-old Texas law
making it a crime to engage in same-sex
intercourse.
The Supreme Court has struggled with
how much protection the Constitution
offers in the bedroom. The court ruled 5-4
in 1986 that consenting adults have no
constitutional right to private homosexual
sex, upholding laws that ban sodomy.
"Gay men and lesbians have been
waiting for the opportunity to convince the
court it should take a different view of their
constitutional rights," Ruth E. Harlow,
legal director of the New York-based
Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund, said Monday.
The court faces several questions in the
latest case. Among them: Is it an
unconstitutional invasion of privacy for
couples to be prosecuted for what they do
in their own homes? Is it unconstitutional
for states to treat gays and lesbians
differently by punishing them for having
sex while allowing heterosexual couples
to engage in the same acts without
penalties?
Sodomy is defined as abnormal sex, in
some states including anal and oral sex.
Nine states ban consensual sodomy for
everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Utah and Virginia. In addition, Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma
punish only homosexual sodomy.
States argue that the laws, some dating back more than 100 years, are intended to
preserve public morals. The laws are rarely enforced.
Lawyers for John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner said the men were bothering
no one in 1998 when they were arrested in Lawrence's apartment, jailed overnight
and later fined under Texas' Homosexual Conduct Law, which classifies anal or oral
sex between two men or two women as deviate sexual intercourse.
The men's lawyers said the convictions would prevent them from getting certain
jobs, and would in some states require them to register as sex offenders. They were
arrested after police responded to a false report of an armed intruder in Lawrence's
apartment. Police entered the unlocked apartment and found the men having sex.
Lawrence and Garner were fined $200 after pleading no contest to misdemeanor
charges.
"The idea that a state may enter into American bedrooms and closely inspect the
most intimate and private physical interactions ... is a stark affront to fundamental
liberty that the court should end," said Harlow, one of the men's lawyers.
Harlow said in court filings that the latest census found more than 600,000
households of same-sex partners in America, including about 43,000 in Texas. She
said the Texas law treats gays as second-class citizens.
William Delmore III, an assistant district attorney in Texas, said people who don't like
the law should take it up with the Texas Legislature, not courts.
He said homosexual sodomy has been considered criminal behavior for centuries.
The conduct "could not conceivably have achieved the status of a fundamental right
in the brief period of 16 years" since the Supreme Court last reviewed it, Delmore
wrote in the state's court papers.
Over the past decade, state courts have blocked sodomy laws in Arkansas, Georgia,
Kentucky, Montana, and Tennessee. A Louisiana appeals court recently upheld that
state's 197-year-old law banning all oral and anal sex.
Delmore said the Texas law does not just target gays and lesbians. He said it also
could be used for bisexuals and heterosexuals "who are tempted to engage in
homosexual conduct." The law is part of Texas' "communal belief that the conduct is
wrong and should be discouraged," he wrote in a filing.
In a brief supporting Texas, the California-based Pro Family Law Center said states
should be given leeway to protect the public from the spread of diseases like AIDS.
Civil rights groups including the Human Rights Campaign urged the court to
intervene, saying the laws are responsible for "stigmatizing gays and lesbians as
outlaws" and "contribute to an atmosphere of hatred and violence" against gays.
The case is Lawrence v. Texas, 02-102. |
