Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

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 …

Sex Determination For Federal Purposes: Is Transsexual Immigration Via Marriage Permissible Under The Defense Of Marriage Act?, John A. Fisher

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I describes the federal immigration benefits available to spouses of most U.S. citizens and presents the historical and contemporary obstacles that prohibit these benefits from being extended to gays and lesbians. It then addresses DOMA's failure to define "opposite sex," and hence DOMA's failure to indicate whether post-operative transsexuals, or their partners, should be given "spousal status" under current U.S. immigration law. Part II examines traditional and modern notions of sex. It traces state legal approaches to transsexual marriage and ultimately disentangles the formalistic rhetoric that obfuscates the reasoning in those cases. In particular, Part II focuses on a …

Restructuring The Marital Bedroom: The Role Of The Privacy Doctrine In Advocating The Legalization Of Same-Sex Marriage, Nadine A. Gartner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Part I of this paper examines the reasons underlying queer rights advocates' reluctance to insert privacy arguments into the case for legalizing same-sex marriage. Part II illustrates that, due to such disinclination, advocates transformed notions of privacy into concepts of liberty. Part III argues that, after the Lawrence decision, proponents of same-sex marriage can and should use privacy-based arguments to fortify their claims.

Foreword, Byron L. Warnken

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Wedding Bells Heard Around The World: Years From Now, Will We Wonder Why We Worried About Same-Sex Marriage, 24 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 589 (2004), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Attraction In Sexual Harassment, Martin J. Katz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Constitution Should Protect The Right To Same-Sex Marriage, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Comments: Because Sex Crimes Are Different: Why Maryland Should (Carefully) Adopt The Contested Federal Rules Of Evidence 413 And 414 That Permit Propensity Evidence Of A Criminal Defendant's Other Sex Offenses, Joyce R. Lombardi

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Domesticated Liberty Of Lawrence V. Texas, Katherine M. Franke

Faculty Scholarship

In this Commentary, Professor Franke offers an account of the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas. She concludes that in overruling the earlier Bowers v. Hardwick decision, Justice Kennedy does not rely upon a robust form of freedom made available by the Court's earlier reproductive rights cases, but instead announces a kind of privatized liberty right that affords gay and lesbian couples the right to intimacy in the bedroom. In this sense, the rights-holders in Lawrence are people in relationships and the liberty right those couples enjoy does not extend beyond the domain of the private. Franke expresses …

Queering Legal Education: A Project Of Theoretical Discovery, Kim Brooks, Debra Parkes

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The article has two parts. Part II discusses the materials we reviewed to inform the development of a queer legal pedagogy. In particular, it examines the categories of queer legal scholarship and highlights the contributions of other outsider scholars to legal education debates. Early in our research, we found limited material on queer legal pedagogy, and we discovered nothing that posited a theoretical approach. We did, however, find rich resources written by other outsiders to law from which some design principles for queer legal pedagogy might be drawn. We should note at the outset that our goal in this Part …

'I Do' Kiss And Tell: The Subversive Potential Of Non-Normative Sexual Expression From Within Cultural Paradigms, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Using a comparative analysis of the equality movements of sexual minorities in Canada and India the author identifies a symbiosis between the subversive benefits of a deconstructionist approach to equality and the practical achievements to be gained by a rights-based model of social justice. The analysis is conducted through an examination of the role that the expression of same-sex desire plays in the legal and social positions of sexual minorities in Canada and India. The author argues that the acquisition of rights can provide sexual minorities with greater access to dominant cultural rituals and that such access provides opportunities to …

Queering Legal Education: A Project Of Theoretical Discovery, Kim Brooks, Debra Parkes

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The article has two parts. Part II discusses the materials we reviewed to inform the development of a queer legal pedagogy. In particular, it examines the categories of queer legal scholarship and highlights the contributions of other outsider scholars to legal education debates. Early in our research, we found limited material on queer legal pedagogy, and we discovered nothing that posited a theoretical approach. We did, however, find rich resources written by other outsiders to law from which some design principles for queer legal pedagogy might be drawn. We should note at the outset that our goal in this Part …

Legal Dimensions Of Adolescent Sexuality, Roxanne Mykitiuk, Stephanie Turnham

Articles & Book Chapters

The ethical and legal obligations with respect to treating a minor can be confusing, particularly in the areas of consent to treatment, confidentiality, and parental involvement. The clinician must be aware of the appropriate course of practice when the patient is an adolescent seeking care for contraception, pregnancy, or sexually transmitted infections. This article examines a number of ethical and legal issues that arise when providing reproductive and sexual health care to an adolescent and offers recommendations for the physician’s most appropriate courses of action regarding adolescent patients and the age of consent to sexual activity, reporting of child abuse, …

Natural Law And The Regulation Of Sexuality: A Critique, Dr. Brent L. Pickett

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

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 …

Legal Treatment Of Cohabitation In The United States, Cynthia Grant Bowman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article discusses the variety of ways state legal systems in the United States treat cohabitation, both by same-sex and heterosexual couples. The different approaches are described along a spectrum that ranges from one extreme, under which cohabitants have essentially no rights against one another or against third parties, to the other extreme, under which cohabitants are to be treated as though they were married under state law. Different areas of law are discussed, including the rights of cohabitants both against one another (remedies upon dissolution, inheritance) and against third parties, such as state benefits, tort claims, health-related benefits, and …

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 …

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.

Paradoxes Of Health And Equality: When A Boy Becomes A Girl, Noa Ben-Asher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Can a parent be legally required to control the gender of a child? What is the legal justification of a forced disintegration of a family? This Essay will try to address these issues, raised by an unusual legal dispute between parents who believed that they should raise their child as a girl, and a state agency that insisted on a masculine upbringing as a boy.

Paradoxes Of Health And Equality: When A Boy Becomes A Girl, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In the fall of 2000, six-year-old male Zachary from a small town in Ohio, claimed that s/he was a girl and requested, from now on, to be called Aurora. When the child's parents honored this unusual wish and made efforts to make official the child's feminine identity, the case turned into a custody battle between the parents and the state of Ohio. Although the child was occasionally treated as a girl at home from the age of two, the attempt to register the child in public school as a girl motivated the state dissolution of this family. At the …

Inscribing Lesbian And Gay Identities: How Judicial Imaginations Intertwine With The Best Interests Of Children, Christopher Carnahan

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the legal challenges faced by same-sex parents in adoption and child custody cases, highlighting the evolving definition of family and the impact of court rulings on children's best interests. It critiques the use of formal definitions of family and advocates for a functional approach that prioritizes children's welfare, emphasizing the need for legal recognition of diverse family structures.

Rebuilding The Closet: Bowers V. Hardwick, Lawrence V. Texas, And The Mismeasure Of Homosexual Historiography, Jody Madeira

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

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 …

Symposium Problem, Editorial Staff

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

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, E. Brandon Bailey

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

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 …

Brief, Josh Laws

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

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?

Choosing Liberty Over Equality And Sacrificing Both: Equal Protection And Due Process In Lawrence V. Texas, Andrew J. Seligsohn

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, arguing that the Court's reliance on substantive due process under the Due Process Clause, rather than the Equal Protection Clause, undermines the broader equality concerns faced by the LGBTQ+ community. By prioritizing liberty over equality, the Court missed an opportunity to establish a more robust legal foundation for future LGBTQ+ rights, leaving the decision vulnerable to challenge and failing to address the systemic discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Women's Rights And Children's Rights: A Partnership With Benefits For Both, Jonathan Todres

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article "Women's Rights and Children's Rights: A Partnership with Benefits for Both" by Jonathan Todres explores the interconnectedness of women's and children's rights, arguing that while separate treaties like CEDAW and CRC are beneficial, a holistic approach combining both frameworks is essential for effective protection. It emphasizes that addressing issues like child prostitution in Thailand requires leveraging both women's and children's rights to create comprehensive solutions.

Patriarchy On Lockdown: Deliberate Indifference And Male Prison Rape, Olga Giller

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the U.S. prison system perpetuates patriarchy and uses rape as a tool of social control, with the deliberate indifference standard under the Eighth Amendment failing to hold prison officials accountable for preventing sexual violence. It critiques the systemic failure to address prison rape, emphasizing its roots in patriarchal structures and the need for systemic change.

Lawrence V. Texas: When "Profound And Deep Convictions" Collide With Liberty Interests, Nancy J. Knauer

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned Bowers v. Hardwick and invalidated a Texas sodomy law criminalizing same-sex intimacy. The author argues that Lawrence not only advanced individual liberty interests but also marked a significant shift in the legal and cultural recognition of homosexuality, moving beyond earlier frameworks that criminalized or marginalized gay individuals. The decision reflects broader societal changes in understanding same-sex relationships and challenges the use of moral disapproval as a basis for legal restrictions on consensual adult conduct.

Is Incest Next?, Brett H. Mcdonnell

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines whether the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated sodomy laws, might lead to the legalization of consensual adult incest. While the decision could theoretically create a precedent for challenging incest laws, the author argues that such an outcome is unlikely due to significant legal, social, and political differences between sodomy and incest.

The Shag-A-Delic Supreme Court: "Anal Sex," "Mystery," "Destiny," And The "Transcendent" In Lawrence V. Texas, Richard D. Mohr

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas for its lack of clarity and robust constitutional framework. While the decision overturned Texas's sodomy law, the author argues that Kennedy's reasoning conflated liberty and equality rights, relied on vague language, and failed to establish a clear legal standard, undermining its potential to provide strong protection for LGBTQ+ rights.