Opinion ID: 1733223
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Interpretation of Right of Privacy under the Louisiana Constitution

Text: The only possible remaining justification for concluding that La.Rev.Stat. 14:89 is an unconstitutional exercise of the State's police power to proscribe immoral conduct is that, in Louisiana, the right to engage in consensual and private oral and anal sex, although legislatively determined to be morally reprehensible, is guaranteed under our constitution. As we discussed supra, La.Rev.Stat. 14:89, in one form or another, has existed in some or all of Louisiana dating as long ago as the very early nineteenth century. Crime against nature laws were amended and reenacted in different forms throughout both the nineteenth and twentieth century. However, the prohibitions against oral and anal sex were never specifically repealed. A constitutional right to privacy obviously cannot include the right to engage in private acts which were condemned as criminal, either by statute or case law interpretation thereof, at the very time the Louisiana Constitution was ratified. [10] No reasonable Louisiana citizen would consider that the result of voting to ratify a general constitutional guarantee of liberty or privacy would be to divest that citizen's elected legislators of the right to continue the specific statutory proscription against sodomy or any other criminal act. To the contrary, any reasonable citizen would believe that he or she thereby was retaining the liberty to make such determinations through elected legislators. There is no evidence that the people adopting the Louisiana Constitution at referendum intended to create a constitutional right to engage in oral or anal sex. The question is not one of what is good or wise for Louisiana society, but rather whether the people's majority which adopted the constitution at referendum intended to deprive the legislature of the power to deal with the matter. There is no evidence whatsoever to show an intent to deprive the legislature of this power. A reviewing court should strive to assure itself and the public that announcing rights not readily identifiable in [a c]onstitution's text involves much more than the imposition of the Justices' own choice of values. Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. at 191, 106 S.Ct. 2841. This court cannot substitute its own public policy determination for that of the legislature. The question of whether or not a third party is harmed by a consensual and private act of oral or anal sex is a debate which has been ongoing for many years and is nothing which this court needs to address. The legislature is within constitutional authority to proscribe its commission. Any claim that private sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally insulated from state proscription is unsupportable. Bowers, 478 U.S. at 191, 106 S.Ct. 2841. If an act of sodomy is truly consensual and private, it would be impractical to enforce the statute against the participants, since both would be guilty of the crime of sodomy and, consequently, there would be no victim to file charges and institute a prosecution. See Perryman v. State, 63 Ga. App. 819, 12 S.E.2d 388 (1940); Pruett v. State, 463 S.W.2d 191, 193 (Tex.Crim. App.1970). If the act takes place in private and one of the participants files criminal charges against the other, it can be subject to prosecution as a nonconsensual act. The prosecution against Smith was not initiated because he was accused of engaging in private and consensual sex acts. To the contrary, he was prosecuted only because the victim accused him of committing a forcible act against her. Although the judge only found Smith guilty of receiving oral sex, the fact nevertheless remains that the prosecution was initiated and pursued only because one of the participants initially alleged, and subsequently testified under oath, that she did not consent to the act. More importantly, however, it would be irresponsible for this court to adopt the novel proposition that a criminal statute's constitutionality depends upon whether anyone other than the actual participants themselves are adversely affected by the proscribed act. Presumably, under such a standard, the state could no longer enforce laws against consensual incest, fornication, prostitution, drugs, etc. See Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. at 195-96, 106 S.Ct. 2841; See also Powell v. State, 270 Ga. 327, 510 S.E.2d 18, 30 (1998) (Carley, J., dissenting). By equating the general constitutional guarantee of liberty or privacy to all Louisiana citizens with the right of each individual citizen to engage in self-indulgent but self-contained acts of permissiveness, this court would be calling into constitutional question any criminal statute which proscribes an act that, at least to the satisfaction of a majority of this court, does not cause sufficient harm to anyone other than the actual participants. For instance, the constitutionality of criminal laws which forbid possession and use of certain drugs would become questionable. See Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. at 195, 106 S.Ct. 2841. There has never been any doubt that the legislature, in the exercise of its police power, has authority to criminalize the commission of acts which, without regard to the infliction of any other injury, are considered immoral. Simply put, commission of what the legislature determines as an immoral act, even if consensual and private, is an injury against society itself. The law is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the Due Process Clause, the courts will be very busy indeed. Powell v. State, 270 Ga. 327, 510 S.E.2d 18, 30 (1998)(Carley, J., dissenting), (quoting Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. at 196, 106 S.Ct. 2841). See also Christensen v. State, 266 Ga. 474, 468 S.E.2d 188, 190 (1996); State v. Walsh, 713 S.W.2d 508, 511-12 (Mo.1986). This court is not considering the wisdom of the law in question. This court is only ruling that it should not, and constitutionally cannot, rule that La.Rev.Stat. 14:89 violates a constitutional right to privacy guaranteed by the Louisiana Constitution. The Fourth Circuit erred by holding that the right of consenting adults to engage in private non-commercial sexual activity, free from government interference, is protected by the privacy clause of the Louisiana Constitution. This court has never recognized such a right, and declines the invitation to do so today.