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Sodomy laws in the United States, which outlawed a variety of sexual acts, were historically universal. While they often targeted sexual acts between persons of the same sex, many statutes employed definitions broad enough to outlaw certain sexual acts between persons of different sexes as well, sometimes even acts between married persons. Through the 20th century, the gradual liberalization of American sexual morals led to the elimination of sodomy laws in most states. During this time, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of sodomy laws in ''Bowers v. Hardwick'' in 1986. However, in 2003 the Supreme Court reversed the decision with ''Lawrence v. Texas'', invalidating sodomy laws in the remaining 14 states (Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri (statewide), North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia). ==History== In 1779, Thomas Jefferson wrote a law in Virginia which contained a punishment of castration for men who engage in sodomy. Jefferson intended this to be a liberalization of the sodomy laws in Virginia at that time, which prescribed death as the maximum penalty for the crime of sodomy. It was rejected by the Virginia Legislature. Prior to 1962, sodomy was a felony in every state, punished by a lengthy term of imprisonment and/or hard labor. In that year, the Model Penal Code (MPC) — developed by the American Law Institute to promote uniformity among the states as they modernized their statutes — struck a compromise that removed consensual sodomy from its criminal code while making it a crime to solicit for sodomy. In 1962 Illinois adopted the recommendations of the Model Penal Code and thus became the first state to remove criminal penalties for consensual sodomy from its criminal code, almost a decade before any other state. Over the years, many of the states that did not repeal their sodomy laws had enacted legislation reducing the penalty. At the time of the ''Lawrence'' decision in 2003, the penalty for violating a sodomy law varied very widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction among those states retaining their sodomy laws. The harshest penalties were in Idaho, where a person convicted of sodomy could earn a life sentence. Michigan followed, with a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment while repeat offenders got life. By 2002, 36 states had repealed their sodomy laws or their courts had overturned them. By the time of the 2003 Supreme Court decision, the laws in most states were no longer enforced or were enforced very selectively. The continued existence of these rarely enforced laws on the statute books, however, was often cited as justification for discrimination against gay men and lesbians. On June 26, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision in ''Lawrence v. Texas'' struck down the Texas same-sex sodomy law, ruling that this private sexual conduct is protected by the liberty rights implicit in the due process clause of the United States Constitution. This decision invalidated all state sodomy laws insofar as they applied to noncommercial conduct in private between consenting civilians and reversed the Court's 1986 ruling in ''Bowers v. Hardwick'' that upheld Georgia's sodomy law. Before that 2003 ruling, 27 states, the District of Columbia, and 4 territories had repealed their sodomy laws by legislative action, 9 states had had them overturned or invalidated by state court action, 4 states still had same-sex sodomy laws, and 10 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. military had laws applying to all regardless of gender. In 2005 Puerto Rico repealed its sodomy law, and in 2006 Missouri repealed its law against "homosexual conduct". In 2013, Montana removed "sexual contact or sexual intercourse between two persons of the same sex" from its definition of deviate sexual conduct, Virginia repealed its lewd and lascivious cohabitation statute, and sodomy was legalized in the US armed forces. In 2005, basing its decision on ''Lawrence'', the Supreme Court of Virginia in ''Martin v. Ziherl'' invalidated § 18.2-344, the Virginia stature making fornication between unmarried persons a crime.〔Google Scholar: (''Martin v.Ziherl'' ), accessed April 9, 2011〕 Louisiana's statutes still include "unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same sex" in their definition of "crimes against nature", punishable (in theory) by a fine of up to $2,000 or a prison sentence of up to five years, with or without hard labor; however, this section was further mooted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2005 in light of the ''Lawrence'' decision. In ''State v. Whiteley'' (2005), the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that the crime against nature statute, N.C. G.S. § 14-177, is not unconstitutional on its face because it may properly be used to criminalize sexual conduct involving minors, non-consensual or coercive conduct, public conduct, and prostitution. On January 31, 2013, the Senate of Virginia passed a bill repealing § 18.2-345, the lewd and lascivious cohabitation statute enacted in 1877, by a vote of 40 to 0. On February 20, 2013, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the bill by a vote of 62 to 25 votes. On March 20, 2013, Governor Bob McDonnell signed the repeal of the lewd and lascivious cohabitation statute from the Code of Virginia.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=SB 969 )〕 On March 12, 2013, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down § 18.2-361, the crimes against nature statute. On March 26, 2013, Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli filed a petition to have the case reheard ''en banc'', but the Court denied the request on April 10, 2013, with none of its 15 judges supporting the request.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ken Cuccinelli Loses Petition To Uphold Anti-Sodomy Law )〕 On June 25, Cuccinelli filed a petition for certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals decision, which was rejected on October 7. On February 7, 2014, the Virginia Senate voted 40-0 in favor of revising the crimes against nature statue to remove the ban on same-sex sexual relationships. On March 6, 2014, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 100-0 in favor of the bill. On April 7, the Governor submitted slightly different version of the bill. It was enacted by the Legislature on April 23, 2014. The law took effect upon passage. In April 2014, a proposed Louisiana bill sought to revise the state's crime against nature law, maintaining the existing prohibition against sodomy during the commission of rape and child sex abuse, and against sex with animals, but removing the unconstitutional prohibition against sex between consenting adults. The bill was defeated on April 15, 2014 by a vote of 66 to 27. As of April 2014, 17 states either have not yet formally repealed their laws against sexual activity among consenting adult, or have not revised them to accurately reflect their true scope in the aftermath of Lawrence v. Texas. Often, the sodomy law was drafted to also encompass other forms of sexual conduct such as bestiality, and no attempt has subsequently succeeded in separating them. Fourteen states' statutes purport to ban all forms of sodomy, some including oral intercourse, regardless of the participants' genders: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah. Four states specifically target their statutes at same-sex relations only: Oklahoma, Kansas〔Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-3505 (2010).〕〔 Kentucky, and Texas. * Alabama ((Alab. Code 13A-6-65. )) * Florida ((Fld. Stat. 798.02. )) ((Fld. Stat. 800.02. )) * Georgia ((Ga. Stat. 16-6-18. )) ((Ga. Stat. 16-6-18. )) * Idaho ((I.C. § 18-6605. )) ((I.C. § 18-6605. )) * Kansas ((Kan. Stat. 21-3505. )) * Kentucky ((KY Rev Stat § 510.100. )) * Louisiana ((R.S. 14:89. )) * Maryland ((Md. Code Ann. § 3-321. )) ((Md. Code Ann. § 3-322. )) * Massachusetts ((MGL Ch. 272, § 34. )) ((MGL Ch. 272, § 35. )) * Michigan ((MCL § 750.158. )) ((MCL § 750.338. )) ((MCL § 750.338a. )) ((MCL § 750.338b. )) * Minnesota ((Minn. Stat. 609.293. )) ((Minn. Stat. 609.34. )) * Mississippi ((Miss. Code § 97-29-59. )) * North Carolina ((G.S. § 14-177. )) ((G.S. § 14-184. )) ((G.S. § 14-186. )) * Oklahoma ((Okla. Stat. § 21-886. )) * South Carolina ((S.C. Code § 16-15-60. )) ((S.C. Code § 16-15-120. )) * Texas ((Tx. Code § 21.06. )) * Utah ((Ut. Code 76-5-403. )) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sodomy laws in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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