Alaska
History
1867 When
the United States buys Alaska from the Russians, Alaska has no criminal laws
whatsoever. Five years before, the Russian Czar, in a fit of anger, revoked all
Russian law there. Not only is sodomy
therefore legal, but so where murder, rape, arson, and every other crime.
This situation remains for 17 years after purchase by the U.S. until
Congress enacted a law to give some stability to Alaska.
1955 Alaska
enacts the nation’s first law forbidding the sale of comic books that
portray “sexually indecent subject matter such as adultery, homo-sexuality,
sadism, masochism or other perversions.”
1971 The
Alaska legislature, thinking it is removing surplus language in a clean-up of
state law, accidentally legalizes oral sex. When
pointed out to it by the Alaska Supreme Court, the legislature makes no effort
to correct the “error” and later repeals the remaining portion of the
sodomy law.
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