Thursday, September 8, 2011

Sodomy and the Barricades

Constitutional Law today, the Professor said that one of the ways he was told to define a fundamental right was 'A right that you'd go to the barricades for', where if they took it away you would fight them for it tooth and nail.

Of course later this lead to the professor asking "So is this the barricade right for you?"  While we were discussing Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986).  "Didn't Thomas Jefferson say that?  Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness!  And sodomy!"

Discussing Bowers in a red state is interesting.  Bowers is in fact a discussion of anti-sodomy laws that upheld a Georgia statute against 'homosexual sodomy'.  It upheld the law by saying that to make sodomy between men a fundamental right would "be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching." It was later overturned with the Court's rationale that the fundamental right was not really about sodomy but the right to have an intimate relationship with who you wish.

These are the discussions you have at law school.  For the most part interesting, but utterly terrifying if you walk by at the wrong time.

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