Minnesota Sodomy Law Down, Still Under Attack
Culture & Family
Report, June 14, 2001
A weekly publication of the Culture & Family Institute of Concerned Women
for America
Just two weeks ago, Judge Delila Pierce ruled that Minnesota’s
anti-sodomy law is unconstitutional "as applied to private, consensual,
non-commercial acts of sodomy by consenting adults."
Fresh off that victory, the Minnesota affiliate of the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) is back in court—asking that the judge’s order be
applied to all cases statewide, and not merely the handful of situations they
presented to the court.
"The state has no good reason to say that [sodomy] should be
unconstitutional for some people, but not everyone," Matt Coles, Director
of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights, said in a press statement.
Previously, the ACLU was able to sway the court by bringing forward a
disabled man who was supposedly hindered by the law from having sexual
relations with his wife, professionals who said the law jeopardized their
professional licenses, and a divorced homosexual man who said the law
prevented him from visiting his children.
Now that Pierce’s ruling has made the law practically unenforceable, the
ACLU is asking that decision to be broadened to include all cases, even
homosexual prostitution. [Sic, prostitution would remain illegal under its own
statute, and they know it. -Bob]
Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch is fighting the move. In a memorandum
to the court, he said, "If the ACLU wants the ruling to affect people
beyond the original plaintiffs, it should instead change the original lawsuit
to name all of the state’s law enforcement agencies as defendants."
Hatch does not have the full backing of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who
supports repeal of the sodomy law.
— MK
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