RICHMOND — Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II filed an appeal Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court aimed at preserving Virginia’s anti-sodomy law.
Cuccinelli, a Republican running for governor, asked the court to overturn a March decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the law, which had been used in 2005 to convict a 47-year-old man of soliciting oral sex from a 17-year-old girl.
The appeals court ruled that prosecutors could not use Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute to convict William Scott MacDonald because the Supreme Court had, in a landmark 2003 ruling, invalidated sodomy statutes that criminalize sexual activity between consenting adults. Virginia’s statute outlaws all acts of oral and anal sex.
Cuccinelli acknowledged that since the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision, the law cannot be used against consenting adults engaged in private sex acts. But he said the law remains a useful tool for prosecutors seeking to obtain felony convictions against sexual predators.
Help me understand something. Forcible intercourse is illegal. Why isn’t forcible sodomy? This is a stretch. Perhaps the criminal laws against forcible sex acts needs to be strengthened in addition to laws about sex with under-age individuals. If this case is about solicitation, then it’s about solicitation, not forcible sex acts. Details are mercifully sketchy.
Once again, Ken needs to get out of everyone’s bedroom. He doesn’t want to become known as the Sodomy Attorney General.
Is this really something you’d want the governor of your state to spend his time on?
An appeal to the US Supreme Court!
I’m getting the vapors —–
I am curious….since DOMA was struck down, how will same sex couples who move to Virginia be treated? Will they not be able to file jointly on their state tax return? How would the state know?
How will military same sex couples be treated?
I realize that couples won’t be able to marry in Virginia. Why not go somewhere else, come home and its business as usual?
Comments?
The 2006 Constitutional amendment in Virginia was a gimmick to drive “conservative” voters to the polls in the off-year Congressional elections (although I fail to perceive anything “conservative” about such a measure). It was an ugly thing but it served its intended purpose. The question is how long will it take for Virginians to demand it be removed from their foundational document.
Karl Rove at his best. I agree. I doubt if it will be removed though. How does one go about getting it back on the ballot?
Scalia and Cuccinelli can bond on this one, their obsession with sodomy!
Yeah I think “Cooch” has a shadow agenda here. Has to be another way to do this.
Would it make sense to protest with a pro-sodomy rally? Or take pledges to engage in sodomy?
Does that word bother anyone else?
I don’t like that generalized word. Why can’t the legal world follow clinical words for various acts?
It would get PWC into the news again …
Hell of a logo
Moon – I think the correct clinical word is “buggery.” That avoids casting aspersions on any particular village in ancient Canaan.
We should give the poor people of Sodom a break. They were misunderstood. Their crime was being overly hospitable to visiting extraterrestrials. Their neighbors across the valley in Gomorrah are never singled out for opprobrium. You never hear about anyone accused of Gomorr-izing a victim. You never hear about Gomorrah-ites. It really is unfair.
Life’s tough, isn’t it? snicker. Let’s just say I think the umbrella ….never mind….TMI….
And then there is the non-buggery sodomy….Too much under that umbrella.
@Moon-howler
Sodomy /ˈsɒdəmi/ is any non-penile/vaginal copulation-like act, such as oral or anal sex, or sex between a person and an animal.
Does this definition from the Concise Oxford Dictionary work?
Maybe we should seek guidance from the ancient Greeks.
Its too all-encompassing. @George