Louisiana Remains Safe from Crimes Against Nature
Posted on 18. Feb, 2011 by Staff Reporter in A Sex Blog
This week, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Andrea J. Ritchie, Esq. and the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, Law Clinic filed a federal civil rights complaint challenging the continuing use of Louisiana’s 206 year-old Crime Against Nature statute that brands people who solicit oral and anal sex as sex offenders.
The statute criminalizes individuals who offer or agree to have oral or anal sex for money by requiring them to register as a sex offender upon conviction, while a conviction under Louisiana’s prostitution statute triggers no such requirement. This archaic and discriminatory law is founded on moral disapproval and outdated notions of what kinds of sex acts are acceptable.
Doe v. Jindal was filed in the United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans on behalf of nine anonymous plaintiffs. Some of the plaintiffs have multiple convictions of Crime Against Nature by Solicitation and as a result must register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives. The lawsuit alleges that being forced to register as a sex offender because of a Crime Against Nature conviction (which is the only offense requiring registration that includes no element of force, coercion, lack of consent, use of a weapon, or the involvement of a minor) serves no legitimate purpose whatsoever. As such, it is unjustifiable and unconstitutional.
Learn more about the Crime Against Nature Statute. Read Eight Years After Lawrence, Sodomy Laws Are Alive and Kicking, a blog post by CCR Staff Attorney Alexis Agathocleous.
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