[Sparta]

The law may be horrible, but the law has to be followed.

[AppyPappy]

How does he know what she does in her home?

[iron tongue]

Virginia's sodomy law "has nothing to do with whether Judge Askew is fit to serve as a judge."

Just like being convicted of murder would have nothing to do with whether someone is fit to serve as a judge.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

According to Michael Adams, spokesman for the homosexual advocacy group, LAMBDA Legal Defense and Education Fund, Virginia's sodomy law "has nothing to do with whether Judge Askew is fit to serve as a judge."

Someone admitting that they don't honor the law qualifies them to be a judge??

[APBaer]

"When Robert McDonnell (R-Virginia Beach) himself was asked if he ever ran afoul of this law, his answer was, 'Not that I recall'".

If he can't recall whether he *ever* got a blow job, how does he have the mental faculties to be in the legislature?

[Corin Stormhands]

McDonnell is running for Attorney General (election in 2005). He's trying to make headlines and score points with the right wing of the party.

If the party (very foolishly) decides to go with a nominating convention again instead of a primary, the candidate that wins has to be the darling of the religious right.

[steve-b]

These cases are occurring because warrants are being served, [and] they're going into the home with another warrant,"

This so-called "legal expert" has, as his next assignment, the writing of the following text five hundred times, switching back and forth between black and red ink:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[waterstraat]

It is not a question on whether we agree or disagree with the sodomy law.

Anyone who is breaking the law, should not be a judge. Any judge that breaks the law, should resign or be thrown out, and be punished. No one who is ever convicted or sentenced by this judge, or any judge who flagrantly and openly violates the law, should feel that justice was served.

I have nothing against lesbians - if she wants to be a lesbian, then "after" her prison sentence is served, she should leave Virginia, and move to a state where lesbian behavior is not against the law.

For example, if someone wants to carry a concealed weapon, and lives in a state that does not allow it, they should move to a state that does permit it.

If a judge violates state law and habitually steals, then she should not be a judge.

For any judge to openly violate state law, no matter what the law, is intolerable and totally unacceptable.

Do we want people like Ted Bundy or the Manson family to be judges on murder trials?

Do we want people like bill clinton to judge our morals?

Just how would this judge "rule" if someone was being prosecuted for the very same crime that she commits on a regular basis? Can she even be impartial?

[Just another Joe]

I can't say that this is a good law but looky here
I can't beleive that no one has made this connection.

Lambda Lambda Lambda

[Remedy]

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 US 186 (1986)

After being charged with violating the Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy by committing that act with another adult male in the bedroom of his home, respondent Hardwick (respondent) brought suit in Federal District Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute insofar as it criminalized consensual sodomy. The court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, holding that the Georgia statute violated respondent's fundamental rights.

Held: The Georgia statute is constitutional. Pp. 190-196 .

(a) The Constitution does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy. None of the fundamental rights announced in this Court's prior cases involving family relationships, marriage, or procreation bear any resemblance to the right asserted in this case. And any claim that those cases stand for the proposition that any kind of private sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally insulated from state proscription is unsupportable. Pp. 190-191 .

(b) Against a background in which many States have criminalized sodomy and still do, to claim that a right to engage in such conduct is "deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition" or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" is, at best, facetious. Pp. 191-194 .

(c) There should be great resistance to expand the reach of the Due Process Clauses to cover new fundamental rights. Otherwise, the Judiciary necessarily would take upon itself further authority to govern the country without constitutional authority. The claimed right in this case falls far short of overcoming this resistance. Pp. 194-195 .

(d) The fact that homosexual conduct occurs in the privacy of the home does not affect the result. Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557 , distinguished. Pp. 195-196 .

(e) Sodomy laws should not be invalidated on the asserted basis that majority belief that sodomy is immoral is an inadequate rationale to support the laws. P. 196 .

760 F.2d 1202, reversed. [p*187]

BURGER, C.J., Concurring Opinion

As the Court notes, ante at 192 , the proscriptions against sodomy have very "ancient roots." Decisions of individuals relating to homosexual conduct have been subject to state intervention throughout the history of Western civilization. Condemnation of those practices is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian moral and ethical standards. Homosexual sodomy was a capital crime under Roman law. See Code Theod. 9.7.6; Code Just. 9.9.31. See also D. Bailey, Homosexuality [p*197] and the Western Christian Tradition 70-81 (1975). During the English Reformation, when powers of the ecclesiastical courts were transferred to the King's Courts, the first English statute criminalizing sodomy was passed. 25 Hen. VIII, ch. 6. Blackstone described "the infamous crime against nature" as an offense of "deeper malignity" than rape, a heinous act "the very mention of which is a disgrace to human nature," and "a crime not fit to be named." 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *215. The common law of England, including its prohibition of sodomy, became the received law of Georgia and the other Colonies. In 1816, the Georgia Legislature passed the statute at issue here, and that statute has been continuously in force in one form or another since that time. To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.

This is essentially not a question of personal "preferences," but rather of the legislative authority of the State. I find nothing in the Constitution depriving a State of the power to enact the statute challenged here.

[Remedy]

Hundreds rally for '10 Commandments judge'

"They have objected to my behavior as a judge because I reference the moral foundation of the law when we talked about sodomy, when we talked about adultery, when we talked about separation of church and state. I go back to the legal history that we have here in Alabama, our court case precedents, and the foundations of law to show that these things comport with the Scriptures from which we get our moral foundation."

Gay rights organizations in Alabama and Washington, including Equality Begins at Home of Central Alabama, are calling for Moore's resignation, accusing him of using "right-wing rhetoric and far right religious dogma to justify homophobia and execution of homosexuals."

The effort is in response to the Alabama high court's unanimous decision to reject a lesbian mother's child custody petition. Moore wrote a separate concurring opinion, repudiating homosexuality on religious grounds, calling it "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God."

[mansion]

Maybe she's celibate. Because of that possibility, this law in unenforceable.

Delegate Robert McDonnell (R-Virginia Beach) recently said Askew's homosexuality might prevent her from being sworn in for a second eight-year term. Virginia's "crimes against nature" law strictly prohibits anal and oral sex between consenting adults, regardless of gender.

Oh, I get it now... he's probably frustrated because his wife won't do a "crime against nature" on him.

[HamiltonJay]

Woman has already cost taxpayers $64k in payouts... was it legitimate or basically a harrassment lawsuit I don't know.. but certainly merits further investigation.

As to the law, well, I think if they disallowed everyone who violated that law from any office, Virginia would have about 10 people in the state who could qualify for office.

Not advocating homosexuality in the least, but if they are going to use violation of that law as means to keep people off the bench, has to be applied fairly to all.

[Ligeia]

Newport News judge denied term in rancorous debate
Associated Press
© January 22, 2003
Last updated 4:53 PM Jan. 22

RICHMOND -- Two legislative committees voted today to deny a second term to a Newport News judge who had been accused of sexual harassment.

The fight over whether to re-elect Judge Verbena Askew, who is black, divided the General Assembly along racial lines, with one senator comparing the move to oust her to a lynching.

In a party-line vote, the Republican-dominated House Courts of Justice Committee decided 13-7 not to certify Askew as qualified for re-election. Two Democrats joined eight Republicans in a 10-5 vote against Askew in the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.

Del. Robert McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach and chairman of the House committee, said the harassment claim by Askew's accuser was credible enough to conclude that the judge acted in an improper manner. He said there was also a ``documented pattern'' to suggest that Askew sought to undermine Brenda Collins at work after Collins filed the complaint.

The city of Hampton paid $64,000 to settle Collins' complaint. Askew has denied the allegations.

``I find such a pattern of behavior by a Circuit Court judge toward an employee unacceptable,'' McDonnell said.

``Seven months ago, this House decided that even the speaker of the House ... could not continue to serve in a leadership position'' under similar circumstances, he added, referring to the sexual harassment scandal that brought down former House Speaker S. Vance Wilkins last year.


Askew's supporters pointed to her record of handing out tough sentences to criminals, but Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said that alone was not enough to warrant a second term.

``If we reappoint this judge, we are saying that if you do all right in the courtroom we don't care what else happens around that courthouse,'' said Saslaw.

He said he was especially troubled by a Virginia Employment Commission hearing examiner's finding that Collins was harassed on the job after filing her complaint.

Askew's critics also cited a survey of Newport News attorneys in which the judge received low marks for efficiency and courtroom demeanor.

Del. Kenneth R. Melvin, D-Portsmouth, argued that the judge was suffering a ``death by a thousand small cuts,'' pointing out there was not a single piece of concrete evidence to remove her.

He said a half-day hearing by the courts committees on Friday was filled with hearsay, innuendo, rumor and conflicting testimony _ none of which reached the threshold of burden of proof.

``The combination of these things smells bad,'' he said, ``with the undercurrent of questions about sexual orientation and lesbianism, all of this rolled together.''

Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach and chairman of the courts committee, faulted Askew for failing to disclose the harassment complaint on committee questionnaires this year and in 2000, when she was considered for a seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Earlier Wednesday, a black state senator was warned by the lieutenant governor to tone down her criticism when she likened some of her colleagues to a lynch mob and to Trent Lott.

``At a time when we are celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, I am burdened by what appears to be a resurgence of racial discrimination,'' state Sen. L. Louise Lucas said.

The campaign against Askew ``took on the appearance of a lynch mob,'' she said, adding that the committees' handling of the matter ``leads me to believe the Trent Lott disease has crossed over the Potomac.''

Lott, a Mississippi Republican, lost his post as U.S. Senate majority leader as a result of comments he made Dec. 6 at a 100th birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. Lott said he thought the nation would have been better off if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948, when he ran as a Dixiecrat on a segregationist platform.

Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a fellow Democrat who presides over the Senate, interrupted Lucas, telling her that she was out of order by breaching Senate rules that forbid one senator from challenging another's motives.

Lucas' speech brought rebukes from Stolle and Saslaw.

``We literally shut down the General Assembly Friday afternoon to have a 7«-hour hearing for Judge Askew, not because she is black, not because she is a woman, but because she is a judge and it is our duty and responsibility in the Courts of Justice Committee to determine whether we are going to certify her as qualified,'' Stolle said.

Said Saslaw: ``I thought what went on in there was as fair as can be.''
http://www.pilotonline.com/breaking/br0122ask.html

[CobaltBlue]

If engaging in oral sex in the privacy of one's bedroom disqualifies Virginia judges, I seriously doubt whether most of the men or women on the bench could meet that test.

Or legislators.

The Virginia sodomy law, you see, bans heterosexual oral sex, as well as homosexual oral sex.

If I were a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, I'd ask that only those who are without sin throw the first stone, as it were.

[traditionalist]

According to Adams, Virginia has invoked its sodomy law in recent years only to prevent homosexuals from adopting children and to discriminate against homosexuals involved in child custody battles.

This illustrates precisely why Sodomy Laws are necessary.

[Havoc]

"It's a law that is used to persecute gays and lesbians, it's an inappropriate use of the state's power in a discriminatory fashion, and it's not just Lambda that thinks so," Adams said.

And wrongful death laws are used to persecute murderers. Traffic laws are used to persecute drivers. Drinking laws are used to persecuted people under 21.... Poor us, having to abide by the law - we're all so persecuted.

[Torie]

This lawmaker is probably interested in getting this nutso law that SCOTUS will probably tank shortly repealed. He certainly is acting as if that was his plan. I appreciate his efforts.

[Polonius]

So by McDonnell's reasoning, wouldn't any heterosexual who'd committed the same behavior in violation of the law be equally unfit to serve? Does that mean all judges should be vigorously investigated to see if they ever engaged in oral sex?

[cyborg]

I thought most lesbians don't engage in sodomy but other sexual things more... well as is often talked about by the King of all Media himself. I didn't know lesbians were into sodomy. How would this man know?

I hope he doesn't have any bones in his closet. You know when you start something, you better be able to finish it.