Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds 195-Year Old Sex Ban
Lambda decries court ruling as intellectually dishonest
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
News Release
For Immediate Release: Friday, July 7, 2000
Contact: Stephen R. Scarborough 404-897-1880 x 23
Peg
Byron 212-809-8585 x 230, 888-987-1984 (pager)
ATLANTA Defying the national trend overturning laws that
criminalize private consensual sex between adults, the Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld
the states "crime against nature" statute that carries penalties of up to
five years in prison, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said.
"This decision represents a serious abdication of the courts responsibility
to impose constitutional standards, and its reasoning is intellectually dishonest,"
said Lambda Staff Attorney Stephen R. Scarborough, author of Lambdas amicus brief in
the New Orleans case.
Writing for the 5-2 majority, Judge Chet Traylor wrote, "Simply put, commission of
what the Legislature determines as an immoral act, even if consensual and private, is an
injury against society itself." The decision was issued late Thursday.
The court relied on the 1986 United States Supreme Court ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick,
upholding Georgias sodomy law. But, that decision has been widely criticized and
even rejected by Georgias own top court, which overturned the state sodomy law in
1998.
A Texas appeals court last month found that the Texas sodomy law violated the
states constitution in a case brought by Lambda; the organization continues a legal
challenge to the Arkansas sodomy law, having already helped overturn similar laws in
Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Only 18 states and Puerto Rico still have sodomy laws on
the books.
Scarborough, who helped defeat the Georgia law as an unconstitutional privacy invasion,
noted that such laws often are used to discriminate against lesbians and gay men in
employment, housing, and child custody.
The Louisiana ruling concludes four separate cases involving the 195-year old law that
bans private consensual oral and anal sex between partners of the same or different sex.
Lambda filed an amicus brief in one of those cases, Smith v. State, on behalf of religious
groups and clergy opposed to criminalizing such acts in the name of public morality.
"The Court declined to second guess the legislatures determination of what
is constitutional," said Lambda Legal Director Beatrice Dohrn. "While that logic
defies the American principle of having checks and balances, it also obligates the
citizens of Louisiana to make sure that their representatives move to end this gross
invasion of their privacy."
Lambda joined the ACLUs Lesbian and Gay Rights Project in committing to end laws
like Louisianas. "This decision is obviously disappointing, but we have never
looked at eliminating sodomy laws as short-term work," said Michael Adams, associate
director of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
Lambda Cooperating Attorney Jeffrey Reader, a solo-practitioner from New Orleans,
assisted in Lambdas friend-of-the-court brief. Lambda is the nations largest
and oldest legal organization working on behalf of lesbians, gay men and people with
HIV/AIDS. Headquartered in New York, Lambda has offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Los
Angeles.
(State v. Smith, No. 99-KA-0606)
30
Link directly to Lambdas news advisory:
http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/pages/documents/record?record=660
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
Southern Regional Office
1447 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 1004
Atlanta, GA 30309-3027
Tel: 404-897-1880
Fax: 404-897-1884
lambdalegal@lambdalegal.org
[Home] [News] [Louisiana]