Utah
Bigamist Cites Sodomy Ruling
Focus
on the Family, December 3, 2003
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0029065.cfm
By Keith Peters, Washington, D.C., correspondent
SUMMARY: U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v.
Texas should apply not only to homosexual sex, imprisoned man argues.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year to
decriminalize homosexual sodomy has been cited by a Utah bigamist as reason
why his convictions should be overturned.
In 2001, Tom Green was found guilty of four counts of
bigamy, one count of child rape and one count of criminal nonsupport of his 30
children. He is now arguing to the Utah Supreme Court that the central issue
in the sodomy ruling—that what people do in the privacy of their homes is no
business of government—should apply to him and his five wives, too.
Prosecutors have said the court should reject Green’s
appeal because he failed to raise the issue during his trial.
Jan LaRue, chief counsel of Concerned Women for America,
said she’s not surprised by Green’s argument.
“It’s one of the many fallouts of Lawrence v. Texas
(the sodomy decision), as Justice (Antonin) Scalia predicted would happen,”
she explained. “I’m confident that the Utah Supreme Court will not be
persuaded to strike down the state’s law prohibiting polygamy and bigamy.”
Jim Chapman of the Rocky Mountain Family Council said
Green’s appeal is a perfect example of cause and effect.
“The Lawrence case in Texas has opened the floodgates
for all types of aberrant lifestyles now to be claimed by the practitioners of
these lifestyles to be normal,” he said. “This is the tip of the iceberg
of the kinds of things we’ll see come out of these types of Supreme Court
rulings.”
TAKE ACTION: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
said after the Lawrence v. Texas ruling that his colleagues on the court had
opened the door to the legalization of homosexual “marriage.” Closing that
door will require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Learn more about the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA),
which would preserve the traditional definition of marriage as the union of
one man and one woman, by visiting our Stop Judicial Tyranny Web site.
http://www.family.org/cforum/judicial_tyranny/faqs.cfm?pt=fma#1
Then, take a moment to contact your congressman and
senators and urge them to cosponsor the FMA. For contact information, and
sample messages you can use in phone calls and e-mails, click the link below.
http://www.family.org/cforum/judicial_tyranny/take_action.cfm?pt=fma
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