Court Opinion

ID: 9740614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:38:37.950309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:19.170518
License: Public Domain

Braucher, J.
(concurring in the result). I agree with the court that there are “significant circumstantial differences between unwed fathers and unwed mothers,” and that the paternity and child support provisions of G. L. c. 273, § 11, rest on more than a sex-based classification. Cf. Commonwealth v. Chapman, 2 Mass. App. Ct. 878, 879 (1974). Hence those provisions do not deny the defendant equal protection of the laws. The same differences seem to me to justify differentiation between the unwed father and the unwed mother in the imposition of criminal sentences. It seems clear, however, that it is no longer permissible to punish unnatural sexual conduct of consenting adults in private. See Commonwealth v. Balthazar, 366 Mass. 298, 301, n. 2 (1974). Punishment of natural sexual conduct and of its natural consequences must be subject to the same principle. Even though the defendant has not argued this point, therefore, I concur in the court’s decision to vacate his criminal sentence.