The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American LawThe gay rights question is whether the second-class legal status of gay people should be changed. In this book Andrew Koppelman shows the powerful legal and moral case for gay equality, but argues that courts cannot and should not impose it. The Gay Rights Question in Contemporary American Law offers an unusually nuanced analysis of the most pressing gay rights issues. Does antigay discrimination violate the Constitution? Is there any sound moral objection to homosexual conduct? Are such objections the moral and constitutional equivalent of racism? Must state laws recognizing same-sex unions be given effect in other states? Should courts take account of popular resistance to gay equality? Koppelman sheds new light on all these questions. Sure to upset purists on either side of the debate, Koppelman's book criticizes the legal arguments advanced both for and against gay rights. Just as important, it places these arguments in broader moral and social contexts, offering original, pragmatic, and workable legal solutions. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 38
Page 1
... legitimately be reached in different parts of the country . It then asks , how can these various legitimate policies be har- monized into a coherent federal system , so that no state's law unneces- sarily impairs the operation of the ...
... legitimately be reached in different parts of the country . It then asks , how can these various legitimate policies be har- monized into a coherent federal system , so that no state's law unneces- sarily impairs the operation of the ...
Page 6
... legitimate moral objection to homosexual sodomy . Thus teaches Bowers v . Hard- wick.1 Laws that discriminate against gays will always be constitu- tionally doubtful , however , because they will always arouse suspicion that they rest ...
... legitimate moral objection to homosexual sodomy . Thus teaches Bowers v . Hard- wick.1 Laws that discriminate against gays will always be constitu- tionally doubtful , however , because they will always arouse suspicion that they rest ...
Page 7
... legitimate moral interest in prohibiting homosexual conduct . Hardwick established that a state will always have an innocent explanation for a law that discriminates against gays . Romer implicitly recognized that the widespread animus ...
... legitimate moral interest in prohibiting homosexual conduct . Hardwick established that a state will always have an innocent explanation for a law that discriminates against gays . Romer implicitly recognized that the widespread animus ...
Page 8
... legitimate govern- mental interest . ' 16 Romer's rule of decision may thus be summarized : if a law targets a narrowly defined group and then imposes upon it dis- abilities that are so broad and undifferentiated as to bear no ...
... legitimate govern- mental interest . ' 16 Romer's rule of decision may thus be summarized : if a law targets a narrowly defined group and then imposes upon it dis- abilities that are so broad and undifferentiated as to bear no ...
Page 9
... legitimate state interest . " 21 Because this stress on mere rationality threatens to transform the clause into a minor pro- tection against legislative carelessness , the clause has been given teeth in cases where the challenged ...
... legitimate state interest . " 21 Because this stress on mere rationality threatens to transform the clause into a minor pro- tection against legislative carelessness , the clause has been given teeth in cases where the challenged ...
Contents
| 1 | |
| 6 | |
2 The Right to Privacy? | 35 |
3 The Sex Discrimination Argument and Objections | 53 |
4 Why Discriminate? | 72 |
5 Choice of Law and Public Policy | 94 |
Why the Defense of Marriage Act Is Unconstitutional | 127 |
The Limitations of the Courts | 141 |
Notes | 155 |
Index | 199 |
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Common terms and phrases
American Andrew Koppelman argued basis Bork challenge chapter Choice of Law cited civil unions claim Clause Conflict of Laws constitutional constitutionally context criminal decision Defense of Marriage deny discriminate against gays dissenting doctrine domicile equal protection Eskridge exist faith and credit federal Finnis Fourteenth Amendment full faith gay rights gender Germain Grisez Grisez Hardwick Hawaii heightened scrutiny heterosexual heterosexual couples homosexual homosexual conduct impermissible innocent explanation interest interracial marriage invalidated invidious issue John Finnis judges judgment judicial Justice laws that discriminate legislative legitimate lesbians marital Marriage Act married couples miscegenation moral motives objection opinion percent persons political principle prohibition purpose question racial reason recognition recognize same-sex marriages relationships rely riage right to privacy Romer same-sex couples same-sex marriage Scalia sex discrimination argument sexual orientation social sodomy state's statute Supreme Court theory tion U.S. Supreme Court unconstitutional valid Vermont violated women wrong Yale L.J.
Popular passages
Page 145 - That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community...
Page 42 - That principle is that the sole end for which mankind are warranted individually or collectively in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection ; that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others.
Page 130 - No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.
Page 10 - Into the review of statutes directed at particular religious ... or national ... or racial minorities . . . ; whether prejudice against discrete and Insular minorities may be a special condition, which tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities, and which may call for a correspondingly more searching judicial scrutiny.
Page 36 - The Third Amendment in its prohibition against the quartering of soldiers "in any house" in time of peace without the consent of the owner is another facet of that privacy. The Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers...
Page 193 - Such Acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies thereof, so authenticated, shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts 'of such State, Territory or Possession from which they are taken.
Page 36 - The foregoing cases suggest that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance.
Page 74 - ... we argue from the course of nature, and infer a particular intelligent cause, which first bestowed* and still preserves order in the universe, we embrace a principle, which is both uncertain and useless. It is uncertain ; because the subject lies entirely beyond the reach of human experience. It is useless; because our knowledge of this cause being derived entirely from the course of nature, we can never, according to the rules of just reasoning, return back from the cause with any new inference,...
Page 91 - I am going to mean any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realised in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity, with the result that human powers to achieve excellence, and human conceptions of the ends and goods involved, are systematically extended.