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Full-Text Articles in Law
Natural Law And The Regulation Of Sexuality: A Critique, Dr. Brent L. Pickett
Natural Law And The Regulation Of Sexuality: A Critique, Dr. Brent L. Pickett
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
I will argue that the natural-law understanding of sexuality, and its application to the law, is deeply flawed, in regards to homosexuality and sodomy. I begin by laying out some of the foundations of the natural law position. Central to the position is an account of human goods that are seen as good in themselves, and hence as rational bases for choice and human action. In regards to sexuality, the two most important goods, at least from the natural law perspective, are those of marriage and personal integration. I argue that a real appreciation of the role of these two …
Symposium Problem, _ _. _
Symposium Problem, _ _. _
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
A problem from the sypmposium based on Suzie and Carol Carol who have lived together as a same-sex couple for five years, and wish to be legally married. They reside in the County of Declaration, in the State of Independence, however, and Independence forbids marriage between homosexual couples. Specifically, the Code of Independence statutorily prohibits marriages or contractual unions between same-sex partners.
Brief, Josh Laws
Brief, Josh Laws
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
Issue One: Whether Section 411 is constitutional under Lawrence v. Texas?, Issue Two: Whether the right to marry is a fundamental right, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, that must be extended to all persons regardless of sexual orientation?
Brief, E. Brandon Bailey
Brief, E. Brandon Bailey
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
Appellants contend that the Fourteenth Amendment protects marriage as a fundamental right of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. Therefore, appellants contend that Section 411, under which the clerk of Declaration County circuit court acted in denying appellants' request for a marriage license, must be unconstitutional. Appellants predicate their contentions on Lawrence v. Texas. Unfortunately for appellants, the holdings of Lawrence are too weak a wind to shift the ship of marriage from its historical and legal course. To understand why Lawrence is inadequate for the purpose for which appellants invoke it, the Court must look to the right of …
Rebuilding The Closet: Bowers V. Hardwick, Lawrence V. Texas, And Themismeasure Of Homosexual Historiography, Jody Madeira
Rebuilding The Closet: Bowers V. Hardwick, Lawrence V. Texas, And Themismeasure Of Homosexual Historiography, Jody Madeira
Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest
This paper acknowledges that "[i]t is now commonplace to disparage the Hardwick Justices' performance as historians, though it is less common to specify what was wrong with it''. In an effort to engage in such specification, this paper will first address mischaracterization of history in Bowers, which portrays the historic legal and ecclesiastical penalties of what the Court labels as "homosexual activities" as a continuous, unitary narrative extending from the halls of the Emperors Theodosius and Justinian to the legislative assembly rooms of Georgia and Texas. This illusory perspective portrays the criminalization of sodomy (and therefore the identity of homosexuality …