This week I’ll be discussing my new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, at two different venues. On Thursday, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice will sponsor a speech at Harvard Law School from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Details are available here. On Friday evening at 7:00 p.m., I’ll be speaking […]
Archive | Sexual Conduct Restrictions
Teacher Sex With >=18-Year-Old Students Can’t Be Criminalized
So the Arkansas Supreme Court held yesterday — applying the Arkansas Constitution — in Paschal v. State (Ark. Mar. 29, 2012), relying on the right to sexual autonomy that it had recognized in Jegley v. Picado (Ark. 2002). As the court noted, cases from other states applying the federal constitution and other state constitutions have […]
Killings of Gay and “Emo” Youths in Iraq
By Eugene Volokh on March 13, 2012 4:52 pm in Religion and the Law, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Sexual Orientation
From Radio Free Europe: Since the start of this year, death squads have been targeting two separate groups — gay men, and those who dress in a distinctive, Western-influenced style called “emo,” which some Iraqis mistakenly associate with homosexuality. At least 14 young men have been bludgeoned to death in the last three weeks in […]
If You Adopt Your Girlfriend, Is Having Sex with Her Now Incest?
A question I never thought to ask, but Prof. Terry Turnipseed asks and answers it, in a Slate article about a recent case in which a man did adopt his girlfriend — apparently to shelter money from creditors, given the terms of a trust for his children that he had earlier set up — and […]
Should Prostitution Be Legalized?
The post below will, I suspect, lead many people to want to discuss this question — a question that strikes me as quite interesting — so I thought I’d set up a separate thread for this general issue. Do you think prostitution should generally be legalized, or should it remain criminal? Let’s set aside underage […]
Advertising Sex for World Series Tickets Is Not Attempted Prostitution
So holds Commonwealth v. Finkelstein (Pa. Super. Ct. Dec. 20, 2011). Finkelstein put out a CraigsList ad that, coupled with the post-ad discussion at an in-person meeting, suggested that she was willing to trade sex for a World Series ticket. The prospective buyer (or is it seller?) turned out to be an undercover policeman, so […]
Trial Court Upholds Canada’s Anti-Polygamy Law (Except as to Prosecution of 12-to-17-Year-Old Spouses)
Note that the law criminalizes polygamy, rather than just refusing to recognize polygamous marriages. Here’s the summary from Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause): In Canada, [a British Columbia trial court] today upheld most of Canada’s anti-polygamy law (Sec. 293 of Criminal Code of Canada) against challenges to it brought under the Canadian Charter of Rights […]
Statutory Rape Law Held Unconstitutionally Open to Selective Enforcement, As Applied to Sex Between Two Minors
The Ohio Supreme Court just held this yesterday in In re D.B.; it’s a very important decision, and since the court expressly rested its holding on its view of the U.S. Constitution, not of the Ohio Constitution (see footnote 2 for the reason), I think there’s a substantial chance — not a certainty, but a […]
No Exposition of Lawrence v. Texas and Consensual Adult Incest Likely in the Columbia Professor’s Case
You may recall the David Epstein father/adult daughter incest case, which was in the news in December. The Other McCain reports that the father pled guilty to misdemeanor attempted incest — presumably a plea bargain, given that the allegations were of completed incest, a felony. As I read the sentence, it doesn’t call for jail […]
Adoption and Foster Parenting by Unmarried Cohabitating Couples Who Have a Sexual Relationship
Arkansas’s Act 1 (passed by a voter initiative, though that didn’t affect the analysis), “an individual is prohibited from adopting or serving as a foster parent if that individual is ‘cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage that is valid under the Arkansas Constitution and the laws of this state.’” Today’s Arkansas Dep’t […]
“The Wisdom of Repugnance”
My colleague Professor Bainbridge responds to my posts about incest and about law and morality by saying, “I have no problem with basing laws on the yuck factor, as I’ve explained before. Leon Kass aptly called it ‘the wisdom of repugnance’; i.e., ’emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason’s power to fully articulate it.’” I […]
“Cultural Defenses” and Incest
By Eugene Volokh on December 12, 2010 6:38 pm in Cultural Defenses, Religion and the Law, Sexual Conduct Restrictions
If you want a look at pure cultural defenses that do set up a separate legal rule for people who belong to a particular group, check out Rhode Island General Laws § 15-1-4: The provisions of §§ 15-1-1 – 15-1-3 shall not extend to, or in any way affect, any marriage which shall be solemnized […]
Incest
Given the recent news story about father-adult daughter incest, I thought I’d ask a few questions about adult-adult incest (speaking specifically of parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, or brother-sister, and setting aside cousins and the like): (1) Should it be illegal, and, if so, exactly why? Is it just because it’s immoral? Because legalizing incest would, by making […]