January 25, 2005

Privacy of Consenting Adults

Supreme Court Justice Scalia warned of it in 2003 year when the court ruled sodomy laws unconstitutional, and now it has happened. A federal judge in Western Pennsylavnia has decided that the government has no right to outlaw the private consumption of obscene materials in the privacy of one's home. Handed down last week, but only highlighted on Nightline last evening, this decision could be an historic change in the status of "morality" legislation in the United States.

With an emphasis on the 2003 Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' laws against homosexual sodomy, U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster ruled Thursday [January 20] that "the government can no longer rely on the advancement of a moral code, i.e., preventing consenting adults from entertaining lewd and lascivious thoughts as a legitimate, let alone a compelling, state interest."

That is, as the court held, "the federal obscenity statutes burden an individual's fundamental right to possess, read, observe and think about what he chooses in the privacy of his own home by completely banning the distribution of obscene materials."

Ah, I am sure those red-state social conservatives are just pining away for the days of "Reefer Madness." Well, we've come a long way baby.

 Posted by glenn

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