The
Case of Santorum v. Ten State Supreme Courts
Statement of U.S. Congressman Barney Frank
Barney Frank, April 25, 2003
Congressman, 4th District, Massachusetts
Washington Office:
2210 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5931
Contact: Peter Kovar 202-225-9400
“One of the most egregiously inaccurate arguments Sen.
Rick Santorum made in his homophobic disquisition was that if the United
States Supreme Court rules that it violates protected individual liberty when
an armed policemen arrests two adults for consensual sex in their own bedroom,
it must then logically require legal recognition of bigamy, polygamy,
adultery, and in one of Sen. Santorum’s later adumbrations, bestiality.
“The facts prove conclusively otherwise. Since 1980, the highest courts of
ten states—Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Montana, Georgia,
Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Arkansas—have invalidated laws
outlawing private consensual sex. In none of these ten states did any court
interpret such a ruling to require the legalization of bigamy, polygamy,
incest or any other item on Sen. Santorum’s list of fantasies.
“The right wing in this country has a problem. Its
members support these odious laws, such as that in Texas, which allow adults
to be arrested and convicted for private consenting sex. But they know that
the great majority of the public is appalled by such a view of the role of the
law. So they have worked up a set of illogical, inaccurate arguments to try to
change the subject. In fairness to Sen. Santorum, it must be noted that among
the right-wingers peddling this lie is Justice Scalia, but nonsense in the
service of prejudice is still nonsense, whether spouted by a Senator or a
Justice.”
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