Re: Interesting e-mail - and a Question

From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Tue Aug 12 2003 - 18:17:00 EDT

  • Next message: John W Burgeson: "Re: Sin?"

    Janet asked: "I guess my question is what laws are Justice Scalia talking
    about? Is there a whole set of things that say we can lock up people for
    adultery or fornication or masturbation? No offense intended to anyone's
    views, but if there are such laws, I'm not sure that would be the best
    use of our public safety resources. "

    There have been such laws in the past. There are no doubt some of them
    still around, but not every law on the books is enforced.

    If I understand Scalia, he asserts that a government, say your local
    city, can pass any law it wants to enforce "local morality" and that the
    courts ought to be powerless to overturn that law.

    I have an interesting newspaper article from the 1940s where a lady
    decided to wash her car outside her home while wearing a bathing suit.
    She was hauled into court and fined. The strange thing is that the writer
    of the article saw nothing amiss in this action -- just a "funny story."

    It is not all that long ago that if you used any form of birth control,
    you could be prosecuted in several states. Just the act of purchase was
    enough to trigger the men in blue carrying large guns.

    John Burgeson (Burgy)

    www.burgy.50megs.com

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