Message:   A legal matter to watch

From: newunew     Sent: 6 Dec. 2002     Message 1 of 16

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case called Lawrence v. Texas, an appeal of by a homosexual couple who who were convicted of sodomy for having anal sex with each other in their home. Apparantly a neighbor had heard noise, thought there was a burglary, and called the police. A police officer entered their home, observed them having sex with each other, and arrested them for violating Texas' sodomy law. They were convicted, their conviction was upheld by the state courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to hear their appeal.

Precedent is against them. 16 years ago, in a case called Bowers v. Hardwick, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state sodomy laws as applied to private consensual sexual activity committed in a home. The Texas conviction was upheld based on that decision. Lawrence's lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to reconsider their prior decision. They also argue that the Texas law, which applies only to homosexual acts, discriminates on the basis of sex.

Consensual sodomy is currently illegal in about a third of the states, with about six states or so prohibiting homosexual sex only, and the rest prohibiting anything outside of marriage.

"Sodomy," also called "crime against nature" in some states, is generally considered to apply to oral and anal sex, although definitions vary by state. So far as I know, no state court has definitively held that consensual vaginal fisting is a form of sodomy. But some court decisions have held that their sodomy or "crime against nature" laws are broad enough to cover all similar "perverted" acts, which suggests that they might.