Replies

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

You mean that?

I see the rights reserved to the people.

The Constitution does not delegate the right to regulate sexual activity in any degree to the Federal government. From Amendment IX we know that the Founders recognized rights beyond those specifically enumerated in the Constitution and the ensuing Amendments to it. One of those rights is the right to privacy, and yet another right, one that protects us against unreasonable search and seizure, makes anti-sodomy laws ridiculous, in light of the fact that sex in public is prohibited everywhere.

By the way, before you argue that there is no such thing such as "the right to privacy", please explain why the government is required to obtain a Court order to open someone's mail, or to wiretap their telephones?

The "incest, bestiality, necrophilia..." strawman is old.

Try to think one up of your own.

One of those rights is the right to privacy, and yet another right,

Hehehe… Griswold v. Connecticut only addresses the right of marital privacy which makes the rest of your point mute not to mention silly. Next time you get pulled over for not wearing your seat belt tell the LEO about your right to privacy.

The "incest, bestiality, necrophilia..." strawman is old.

Only if you're a hypocrite...oh that's right you are.

A good portion of mankind, and a substantial portion of Americans, disagree with you. Some of us, particularly those of us who are conservative by nature, do not believe that the government has the right to enact laws to protect us against ourselves.
Why would you cut out the portion of the Declaration of Independence where the Founders established the fact that all men are created equal?
Could it be because you are arguing that some are not?

I missed nothing from that document…
Luis Gonzalez - 2003

Nor did you miss the opportunity for a red herring. Here's the relevant passage again…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson - 1776

While all men are indeed created equal, not all behaviors are equal. The error you're making is in the idea that homosexuals are defined by what kind of people they are, rather than in what type of perversion they engage.
Sodomy laws do not punish people for being created differently, but for how they behave.

The Constitution does not delegate the right to regulate sexual activity in any degree to the Federal government. From Amendment IX we know that the Founders recognized rights beyond those specifically enumerated in the Constitution and the ensuing Amendments to it. One of those rights is the right to privacy, and yet another right, one that protects us against unreasonable search and seizure, makes anti-sodomy laws ridiculous, in light of the fact that sex in public is prohibited everywhere.
Luis Gonzalez - 2003

Something else you missed…

"Whosoever shall be guilty of Rape, Polygamy, or Sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch diameter at the least."
Thomas Jefferson - 1778

Even if the punishments are harsh by today's standards, Jefferson clearly didn't believe that sodomites were protected in their behavior by an unenumerated right of privacy. Nor did the Supreme Court in the 1986 Georgia decision. Regulating sodomy remains a prerogative of the States, and only a gross abuse of judicial power by the SCOTUS would hold otherwise.

Two people having consensual sex is the equivalent of consensual machete fighting?
Luis Gonzalez - 2003

Jefferson again, from the same document…
Whosoever committeth murder by way of duel, shall suffer death by hanging; and if he were the challenger, his body, after death, shall be gibbeted.
Thomas Jefferson - 1778

Not quite the same, but you can see that like consenting sodomites, consenting duelists are not "created equal… endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" as sodomites and duelists, in the view of the Founder who enunciated the principle.