Ken Cuccinelli’s Sodomy Obsession-The frightening legal implications of the VA politician’s crusade

[FSogol]

against oral and anal sex.
By Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Magazine

"Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, has garnered more than his share of national attention over the years, with high-profile legal crusades against global warming researchers, Obamacare, and abortion clinics. But it’s his recent war on consensual sodomy in the commonwealth that has raised the most eyebrows as the gubernatorial candidate has made the issue a centerpiece of the final months of his campaign.

His critics, including the ladies of The View and Jay Leno, have responded to Cuccinelli’s quest to reinstate Virginia’s anti-sodomy or, “Crimes Against Nature” law, with snickers and winks. The law is plainly unconstitutional—according to both a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision and a federal appeals court—and giggling about the attorney general’s creepy preoccupation with Virginians’ consensual oral sex makes for an easy comic target. But that focus obscures the real—even original—sin undergirding Cucinelli’s latest legal push: It’s a call for judges to read statutes to mean what they don’t say; a call for outright judicial activism, for freewheeling judicial interpretation—qualities legal thinkers on the right usually deplore."

SNIP

"What is also not a surprise is that Cuccinelli would employ the federal courts to advance a personal moral agenda—and spend a boatload of taxpayer dollars in the process. He did that with his unsuccessful climate-change crusade against UVA. Nor is it surprising that Cuccinelli would use a fruitless and unwinnable lawsuit as a personal campaign ploy. After all, it was Cuccinelli who, during the Affordable Care Act litigation, called a press conference and made the ill-advised decision to bypass the federal court of appeals and file it directly in the Supreme Court; a decision met by the court with a polite “Erm. No.”"



Whole article here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/08/ken_cuccinelli_s_sodomy_obsession_the_frightening_legal_implications_of.html

[gordianot]

1. When are people going to realize it is not about crazy, bigoted, ignorant? It is about control.

Republicans want control. What is happening in State government is only a prelude to what will happen in Federal government once they gain total control. Sometimes they get a little ahead of themselves like Mr. Cuccinelli.

[FSogol]

2. Cuccinelli just wants holy rollers & other GOP a-holes around the country to send him $$$.

The only control he cares about are the dollars he can grift.

[gordianot]

3. In another time Cuccinelli and other GOP con men would have settled for being tele evangelists.

You are right Citizens United made it possible for the con-men to rake it in from the few who have money, while senior citizens who used to support con men today consider a subsistence life style. Besides running for office is much more lucrative to make money than when you actually hold office and your enemies are watching.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Cuccinelli’s appeal of ruling against Va. sodomy law

This has been reported elsewhere at DU, but I want to make the link at this thread too.

U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Cuccinelli’s appeal of ruling against Va. sodomy law
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/us-supreme-court-wont-hear-cuccinellis-appeal-of-ruling-against-va-sodomy-law/2013/10/07/9d4f83f4-2f77-11e3-bbed-a8a60c601153_story.html

By Ben Pershing, Published: October 7

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal of a lower-court ruling that struck down Virginia’s anti-sodomy law, halting state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II’s long-standing legal efforts to preserve the statute.

Here's the other DU thread:

Supreme Court denies Cuccinelli appeal of Va. sodomy law ruling
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023806220