Case Title: State v. Barlow

Citation: 160 Vt. 527, 630 A.2d 1299

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1993-04-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
STATE_V_BARLOW.91-454; 160 Vt. 527; 630 A.2d 1299


 NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
 Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
 Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in
 order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.

                                 No. 91-454


 State of Vermont                             Supreme Court

                                              On Appeal from
      v.                                      District Court of Vermont,
                                              Unit No. 2, Orleans Circuit

 William Barlow, Jr.                          April Term, 1993



 Walter M. Morris, Jr., J.

 Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General, and David Tartter, Assistant
    Attorney General, Montpelier, for plaintiff-appellee

 Charles Martin of Martin & Paolini, Barre, for defendant-appellant


 PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.




      GIBSON, J.   Defendant entered a conditional plea of guilty to sexual
 assault on a minor, commonly known as statutory rape, in violation of 13
 V.S.A. { 3252(3) (now 13 V.S.A. { 3252(a)(3)).  He appeals on grounds that
 the statute violates a substantive due process right to privacy under the
 Vermont Constitution and the right to equal protection under the United
 States Constitution.  We affirm.
      Defendant argues that privacy in sexual matters is a natural or funda-
 mental right "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Palko v.
 Connecticut,