From: Valence (valence10@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 07 2003 - 20:18:05 BST
Hi Johnny,
J
> Why didn't they make non-consensual sodomy a crime then? They don't use
> fornication statutes to prosecute rape, they have a seperate law for
> non-consensual intercourse called rape. The justices are implying the
> Framers were idiots who couldn't make a law that addressed the issue they
> were trying to address.
R
No Johnny, you're misunderstanding the point. They're implying that the
criminal sodomy statutes were legal addendums to the rape statues. They
didn't have to be explicitly limited to cases of non-consent because their
status as addendums to the rape statutes imposed that requirement
automatically (this point was first explored during the oral arguments back
in May).
J
> *and what does the Court mean by "substantial"? They say a substantial
> number of the prosecutions were for non-consentual sexual assault (like
Kobe
> was just charged with). I bet that a substantial number were for
consentual
> sodomy also, especially if you take into account how hard it is to find
out
> about them.
R
As the Court uses the word "substantial" there can be only one. That is, if
a substantial number were for non-consent prosecutions, then the number of
prosecutions of consensual behavior are "insubstantial" (and almost every
criminal statute is at one time or another abused to reach an insubstantial
number of cases that it wasn't meant to cover). This argument (and the
entire history of sodomy prosecutions) is very carefully treated in the
petitioner's brief to the Court (they go into far more detail than the Court
did and cite the sources which they, and the Court relied upon)--- if you
care enough to read it, I believe it is still available through a link off
the Court's own website.
Oh, one more thing, I don't want to be one those annoying people who correct
you on spelling, but the word is "consensual", not "consentual".
take care
rick
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are
brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. - A.
Bierce
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jul 07 2003 - 20:16:06 BST