Posted on 12/02/2002 10:18:20 AM PST by polemikos
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide a challenge to a Texas law that makes it a crime for gays and lesbians to have consensual sex in their own homes, agreeing to consider overruling its 1986 decision that upheld state sodomy laws.
The high court said it would hear an appeal by two men convicted of engaging in "homosexual conduct." They argued the law violates constitutional privacy and equal protection rights, subjecting gays to criminal penalties while allowing different-sex couples to engage in the same conduct.
The justices also said they would consider overturning their 5-4 ruling in 1986 that handed gay rights advocates a defeat by declaring that homosexuals have no constitutional right to engage in sodomy.
Again, such foolishness makes a mockery of the courts. Change this in the legislature. Fighting it in the courts makes the taxpayers pay to settle this.
"Sodomy" is just as illegal for heterosexuals as it is for homosexuals. I don't see any hetero's here advocating to be allowed this perverse behavior. While they seem to want the right to privacy that would accrue from having the law overturned, homosexuals want to right to engage in perversity.
There is a world of difference.
Now, if the majority of a STATE voted to keep sodomy, witchcraft, or drugs illegal, it would not seem that it would be a right retained by the people of that state, would it? 338 - TA79
Sigh, - how many times must you be told, aggie?
-- Under our constitution, the majority does not rule. The states, & the people of the states MUST follow our Constitution & BOR's.
The 'laws' you list above, depending on exactly how they were drafted, would violate the constitution in any number of specifics.
States can reasonably regulate public behaviors, -- they cannot simply "vote to keep [whatever] illegal".
Because some majorities have voted to outlaw some adult behavior, does not make it right. It only shows that some people will go to great lengths to restrict the rights of others and some of us will go to great lengths to protect our right to liberty and the pursuit of happeness.
The constitution is just fine. It is the twisted thinking of nannystate people like yourself that gets in the way of freedom. How does someone call themselves a conservative when they surrender so much to big government?
Some acts of faith are prohibited even in the free exercise of faith protected by the first ammendment. Examples include live sacrifice and drug ingestion.
I don't have the "right" to engage in the perverse act of sodomy. And gays don't either.
You are begging the question again. You assume that Sodomy is a protected right under the constitution. Then, having concluded that, you argue that the 'states are not granted the right to deny human rights', presumably including your cherished right to sodomy.
An entirely circular argument--sodomy is a constitutional right because it is a constitutional right.
I'm out of here.
Got examples?
Wake up and smell the freedom. What do you think the earlier posts were about. People who have sex in these ways really think it's none of you or the government's business. Who the hell do you think you are?Keep the government out of our bedroom. If my wife comes in here, you're in a world of hurt, I'll try to hide the mouse. (pun intended)
I disagree with that. The Ninth Amendment, IMHO, is meant to be read together with the 10th Amendment. The ninth does not garuantee "every right you can concieve," rather, it merely means that these rights are not the only ones to which a person is entitled. Thus, the enumeration of rights is not meant in anyway to be an exhuastive list of rights, thereby allowing the Federal government to limit other rights.
Of course, those rights not contemplated by the Constitution are the province of the States. Thus, the states, through or seperations of powers and our elected representative repblic style of government may make law that curtail certain rights. And, they do that every day. Fropm property rights, to health and public saftey, and so on, the states act.
In my opinion, private sexual contact between consenting adults in the privacy of one's home is not the subject of state or federal legislation. The acts to do implicate the state, with the possible exception of health and public saftey. Of course, those same acts undertaken by men and women would also have the same health-related questions.
Now, some on this thread have pushed the envelope to say that the court may push aside the right to bar marraige by gays and lesbians. I don't think that will happen, and the analysis simply is not the same.
Does that include oral sex? How about anal sex? Mutual masturbation? Exactly which acts are sanctioned - seriously?
Ask your local religious authority. Some branches of Christianity have different interpretations of what is acceptable behavior (as there are differences of opinion even on acceptable diet).
At Ask The Imam, muslims are constantly asking if this or that sexual activity with a wife if permissible. Sex slaves are also permissible according to the Imam (as long as they are seized in jihad). I have not seen any questions to the Imam asking if there are any sexual practices that are permissible with a sex slave but not a spouse.
You may be surprised.
Bound by what, though? The constitution says that powers not granted to the US are reserved to the states or the people. Your argument is the US can't pass a law against sodomy. I agree. It can't pass a law against simple murder or theft either. Those are powers reserved to the states. What in the Constitution says the states can have laws against murder, but not laws against sodomy? Neither, clearly, is a federal offense.
The 2nd amendment, unlike the first, does not begin 'Congress shall make no law...'
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