North Dakota
In 1973, the North Dakota legislature adopted a comprehensive criminal code
revision1 that repealed the state’s consensual
sodomy law,2 retained the abrogation of
common-law crimes,3 and established an age of
consent of 18.4 Unfortunately, the new code also
contained a disorderly conduct provision outlawing the solicitation of sexual
contact while "loitering in a public place for the purpose of soliciting
sexual contact[.]"5
--Excerpted from Sensibilities of Our Forefathers by George
Painter
1 Laws of North Dakota
1973, ch. 117, adopted Mar. 28, 1973, effective July 1, 1975. The sexual
offenses were enacted in a separate law from the rest of the code. The
remainder of the new code was Chapter 116, enacted the same day.
2 Id. ch. 117. North
Dakota Century Code Chapter 12.1-20 covers sexual offenses now.
3 Laws of North Dakota
1973, ch. 116, at 220, §12.1-02-01.
4 Id. ch. 117, at 303,
§12.1-20-05.
5 Id. ch. 116, §30,
codified as §12.1-31-01 (6).
History
1917 The
most bizarre language ever found in a U.S. sodomy case is in a concurring
opinion in a case in which a conviction for heterosexual cunnilingus is
upheld. The judge complained that the girl involved “was not given even a
peanut.”
News
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