Evans v. Romer

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Evans v. Romer

• Antiquity, Modernity, Expert Testimony

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How far have we come? (clip)
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How far have we come?

• pretty far (since milk)
• still divided
• hard to answer
• depends on situation/context
• differential changes
• variable issues of openness
• nj gov forced to resign
• sexuality issues or other?

• suggestion of change
• right direction not there
• is there one, universal goal?
• us society
• anc soc have had more defined protocols

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Agenda

• Sex and the State
• Evans v. Romer Case and Case-Law
• Finnis versus Nussbaum
• Dissonant Harmony?
• Paper 2
• What Sorts of Evidence? What Kinds of Arguments?

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Sex and the State

• Evans v. Romer Case and Case-Law

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Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

• Supreme Court Case
• Sodomy law upheld

To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is
somehow protected as a fundamental right would be
to cast aside millennia of moral teaching (Chief
Justice Warren Burger)
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Colorado Amendment 2 (1992)

• Outlawing
• pro-gay/bi legislation
• Denying
• sexual minority rights recognition

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Challenge Evans v. Romer

• Plaintiffs
• Richard G. Evans
• John Miller
• Priscilla Inkpen
• et al.
• Defendants
• Gov. Roy Romer
• state of Colo.
• state attorney general

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Federal Appeal

• Struck down (5/21/1996)
• 14th amendment (equal protection)
• Scalia dissent
• Amendment 2 as modest attempt ... to preserve
  traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a
  politically powerful minority

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Aftermath

• Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
• Overturns Bowers v. Hardwick
• Same-sex marriage
• Legalized
• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• California
• Outlawed
• Arizona
• California (Proposition 8, 2008)

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Finnis versus Nussbaum

• Dissonant Harmony?

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What do they say? What say you?

• Finnis, Law, Morality, and Sexual Orientation
  
• Notre Dame Law Review 69.5 (1994) 104976

• Nussbaum, Platonic Love and Colorado Law The
  Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual
  Controversies
• Virginia Law Review 80.7 (1994) 15151652

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What say they/you? (disc.)
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What say they/you?...

• Finnis/Nussbaum
• diverge/clash on
• f const. n not
• 2 diff interpretations of anc cult, but similar
  sources
• f anc trad hostile
• n suggests pluralistic sexuality using the ar
  myth
• f smep. n questions the smep thing
• concur on
• state cannot/should not criminalize homosexuality
• Finnis
• strengths
• ns misquoting n as tendentious
• d not all ns

• weaknesses
• no insight, more polemical
• one dimensional use of anc texts
• unnuanced use fo texts
• Nussbaum
• strengths
• 3-dimensional approach
• uses fs evidence against
• more in-depth
• weaknesses
• not too many weakness (maybe read too much into
  texts)
• IS trying to be careful

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Paper 2

• What Sorts of Evidence? What Kinds of Arguments?

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Paper 2 Arguments? Evidence?