FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Peter Kovar (202) 225-5931
Dorothy Reichard (617) 332-3920

THE CASE OF SANTORUM V. TEN STATE SUPREME COURTS

“One of the most egregiously inaccurate arguments Sen. Rick Santorum made in his homophobic disquisition was that if the United States Supreme Court rules that it violates protected individual liberty when an armed policemen arrests two adults for consensual sex in their own bedroom, it must then logically require legal recognition of bigamy, polygamy, adultery, and in one of Sen. Santorum’s later adumbrations, bestiality.

“The facts prove conclusively otherwise. Since 1980, the highest courts of ten states – Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Montana, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Arkansas – have invalidated laws outlawing private consensual sex. In none of these ten states did any court interpret such a ruling to require the legalization of bigamy, polygamy, incest or any other item on Sen. Santorum’s list of fantasies.

“The right wing in this country has a problem. Its members support these odious laws, such as that in Texas, which allow adults to be arrested and convicted for private consenting sex. But they know that the great majority of the public is appalled by such a view of the role of the law. So they have worked up a set of illogical, inaccurate arguments to try to change the subject. In fairness to Sen. Santorum, it must be noted that among the right-wingers peddling this lie is Justice Scalia, but nonsense in the service of prejudice is still nonsense, whether spouted by a Senator or a Justice.”

 

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