Appeals Court Hears Arguments on La. Sodomy Law
Biz
New Orleans, March 31, 2005
GRETNA (AP)—A gay rights lawyer
told an appeals court today that a Louisiana law is discriminatory because it
allows the state to break up advocacy groups like his.
John Rawls of the Louisiana Electorate for Gays and
Lesbians told three judges of the state Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal that
anytime an attorney general wants to, he can come along and haul his
organization into court.
The justices made no immediate ruling
The panel said they would consider Rawls’ argument
against the law and his claim against remaining parts of the so-called
“crimes against nature” law forbidding human sex with animals,
solicitation for oral and anal sex, and nonconsensual sex.
Today’s court argument has its origins in a 2003 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling striking down anti-sodomy laws across the nation.
Last year, Judge Robert Murphy of Jefferson Parish
followed the Supreme Court by striking down part of the “crimes against
nature” law making it criminal for consenting adults to have oral or anal
sex.
But he declined to strike down a law making the state
attorney general’s office responsible for prosecuting homosexual groups as
well as those promoting prostitution and narcotics.
Rawls wants the references to homosexuality struck from
that law.
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