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Coming Out: Decision-Making In State And Federal Sodomy Cases, Susan Ayres
Coming Out: Decision-Making In State And Federal Sodomy Cases, Susan Ayres
Faculty Scholarship
In 1791, American states were enacting laws against sodomy at the same time they ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten constitutional amendments meant to safeguard fundamental rights of individuals in a free society. In a March 1789 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson asserted that a bill of rights was necessary to give the judiciary the power to protect such individual rights. Ironically, that which the judiciary gives, it may also take away, since "[t]he legislator is a writer. And the judge a reader."
This Article deconstructs recent sodomy cases in order to challenge judicial adoption or reinscription …