The Law: A No To Sodomy

Whatever the outcome of the death penalty argument, the Supreme Court rendered a surprising and unexplained decision in a different sphere of law last week: sodomy. By a vote of 6 to 3 the high court summarily ruled that a Virginia sodomy statute was constitutional. That action, unaccompanied by any written opinion, left civil libertarians and homosexual activists thunderstruck.

The court in recent years has been expanding the right to privacy in sexual matters, and sodomy laws seemed a plausible next target. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers for John Doe and Robert Roe, two anonymous homosexuals, decided to challenge the Virginia statute...