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The Article proceeds as follows. Part I explores the primary legal frameworks for understanding rape law over time. It traces the origins of rape as a sometimes civil, sometimes criminal, wrong—through the patriarchal view of rape as a property crime, to the feminist (and liberal) remake of rape into an individual criminal injury to autonomy. It then briefly discusses recent rejections of the liberal/feminist position. Parts II–IV explore the three major impediments to effective norm change in more detail. Part V, after explaining why the recent proposed revisions to the Model Penal Code are not likely to overcome the problems …

Abstract: This Article questions whether and why it should be unconstitutional to treat legitimate and illegitimate children differently. It argues that legitimacy doctrine is rooted in a biological essentialism completely at odds with contemporary efforts to expand legal recognition of nontraditional parenting practices including same-sex parenting, single parenthood by choice, surrogacy, and sperm donation. The routine invocation of legitimacy doctrine by advocates purporting to help nontraditional families is thus at best ironic and at worst dangerous. Analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s legitimacy cases reveals that liberal Justices, in trying to dismantle marriage—a legal construct—as the arbiter of legitimate parenthood, …