Bills to repeal the law recently passed both state legislatures with bipartisan support, but there were a few no votes (Republican state Sen. James Tedisco of Saratoga said, “I will never support adultery. ”, some people complained that it was a waste of time along the way. Explanation of the budget process.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Charles Lavin of Long Island, argued that “criminal laws that punish intimate acts between consenting adults do not deserve to be on the bill.” Agreed.
And also, these days, you never know when a “dead” law will come back to haunt you.
That’s the horrifying scene facing us this week in Arizona. The Abortion Prohibition Act of 1864 was reinstated. The near-total ban on abortions, enacted decades before Arizona became a state, carries a possible prison sentence of two to five years for doctors. This was more than 50 years before women had the right to vote.
There are so-called zombies, laws that remain on the books despite being found (or believed to be) unconstitutional or unenforceable, unless someone musters up the political will to repeal them. In many cases, it never is.
For example, seven state constitutions prohibit atheists from holding public office, but the Supreme Court struck down these provisions in a 1961 decision. Torcaso v. Watkins. Roy Torcaso was a Maryland atheist who was forced into a government appointment because he refused to declare his belief in God. He sued and won at the highest level. However, because the state did not change its constitution, Maryland still technically discriminates.
The word “technically” often appears in connection with zombie law, but also “esoteric,” “relic,” “obsolete,” and “obsolete.” I think these laws have been abandoned under the assumption that the future is the path that will lead to social progress.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone actually trying to ban an atheist from office or arrest someone for adultery in any of the 16 states with anti-adultery laws. After all, as Rabin said, “America is changing.”
But if dobbs vs jackson If anything has taught us anything, it’s that America can bounce back.
The future may take us backwards and zombies may attack.
when Roe vs. Wade The policy’s reversal reinstated Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban, which had been moribund for nearly 50 years, and shuttered family planning clinics for more than a year. Arizona’s 1864 Prohibition similarly wreaked havoc on horror films. dobbsno one knew whether that or a more recent, less restrictive ban would take precedence. As the Arizona Supreme Court just ruled, “zombies are alive.”
Imagine two terrifying creatures in tattered 19th century costumes scattering abortion providers. Also, imagine the women who were scheduled to have an abortion, sobbing as they were turned away from the clinic door.
In zombie lore, the mechanism by which the dead come back to life is unknown. Is it black magic? Weird science? Radiation from space probes? A review of previously settled laws by the activist right-wing majority on the Supreme Court?
With his consent, dobbs vs jacksonJustice Clarence Thomas asked that the “manifestly wrong decision” be overturned. Griswold vs. Connecticut, Lawrence vs. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges – Cases that made contraception, homosexual sex, and same-sex marriage (each) legal in the United States, regardless of state law.
Some states have repealed the unconstitutional laws in question. However, some remain dormant with the possibility of resurfacing. today, Lawrence vs. Texas Undead laws have been blocked in 12 states where sodomy is still technically against the law. In 13 states, Obergefell v. Hodges That’s all that protects the right to same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, right-wing activists plan to reinstate the Comstock Act of 1873, which criminalizes mailing abortion pills. The Comstock Act is truly a relic, the legislative result of Victorian moral panic and anti-vice campaigners’ disgust at the “evil” they witnessed in New York City.
However, in a Supreme Court hearing last month, FDA vs. Hippocratic Medical AllianceJustice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who is seeking to restrict access to the abortion drug mifepristone, called the Comstock Act “a salient provision, not a nebulous subsection of a complex and ambiguous law.” . In other words, very undead.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) has vowed to abolish Comstock, as legal scholars and the Post have argued. “Anti-abortion extremists will continue to use any means available to achieve the national ban they champion,” Smith wrote in the Times., “And I want to make sure that my bill closes all those avenues.” But to do that, she will need a weapon. That means Democrats have a majority in the House and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
In zombie lore, it’s unclear what can actually kill the undead. In some cases, sound waves or blood transfusions may be necessary. Sometimes it’s a bullet to the brain.
In some cases, voters need to rise up out of fear for their rights.
