If I get arrested....

Don't say a thing, other then she s a friend , she should say he s a friend you know consensual -let them prove it

If you get arrested....keep your mouth shut...get a lawyer and let he/she do your talking for you.

I think some of y'all are just going by the subject line and missing the big picture point of the original post...

Yeah I think some folks are reading the title and using this:

Maybe Shyster or some other lawyers can correct me if I'm wrong.

But, If I ever get in trouble...I'm going to take it to the supreme court and argue under Lawrence v. Texas its unconstitutional to prohibit consensual adult private conduct.

I think I would win. Originally Posted by Cynamon

I think a better idea would be to make some porn movies, and put them on a free site they has pay per click advertising. That makes you something of a porn star.

Then, tell you clients to wear masks and tell them you are going to film it and sell it. They are paying you to get a part in a commercial sex film, which is protected under free speech rules.

Honestly, like everyone said, keep your mouth shut and hire a good lawyer, let him do the talking. Like escorts or anything else in life, you get what you pay for. As escorts so elequently put it, cheap service (typically) isn't good and service/legal advice isn't (typically) cheap.

Let me put it this way:

1. There are a number of both ideological and religious martyrs throughout history. But for every one that you can find noted by history, there are at least hundreds who preceded that one that failed so completely as to be nearly erased from memory.
2. Even if we just look at legal breakthroughs in history, the number of cases that get stomped to dust or defeated through sheer attrition outnumbers successful cases by scores for every one that reaches state level. More so for federal level.
3. Despite what political ideologues and demagogues like to pretend on the teevee, the law and the legal system is not some literal, set-in-stone, sacrosanct list of rules that one simply needs to find loopholes in or get rewritten to change The Way Things Are™. The legal system is neither fair nor just, and is probably the most direct form of democracy in the country because judges tend to rule with the lowest common denominator of public opinion. If your legal eagle relative is being honest with you they'd let you know the same. When you hear politicians or activists saying they want their case heard in court it's because they believe public opinion is generally with them. As soon as a court rules against them they all of the sudden go right back to appealing "to the people".

I'm just pointing out the above because what you're suggesting should involve informed consent. If you're serious about going the route you're talking despite the above, then more power to ya. Rock on with your socks on. Originally Posted by jdkees

1. You would NOT have to spend one single second in jail just so you could challenge the constitutionality of a prostitution law. To have "standing" (the right to be a party to a case), all you have to show to challenge a statute is that you are or could be subjected to the provisions of the statute. That's usually not too difficult to show. So you may have to blow a judge to prove that you're in the sex industry, but at least you won't have to go to jail! (Note for those a little slow on the uptake: You wouldn't actually have to give a judge a blowjob...probably )

2. Lawrence v. Texas pretty clearly says there is a privacy right only in "consensual, non-commercial sexual conduct"....so I still don't think Lawrence is the way to argue your case, at least not the entirety of it (though if any other lawyers on the board have a different opinion I'd be happy to hear it). In my opinion this is a Commerce Clause issue, and your argument would be something like "the legislature is unfairly and overzealously criminalizing a market, to an extent that has a profound effect on my livelihood, for no compelling reason."
That's the basic outline. Someone much smarter than me could come up with something much stronger I'm sure.

3. Yes, expenses for this little hypothetical crusade to the Supreme Court would be expensive. BUT!...would that really be a problem for you? If you got the word out that you were trying to legalize prostitution in the U.S. (or even just Texas), you'd have funds flying in. Set up a KickStarter page! Have a Sexy car wash! You could offer a Supreme Court Edition BnG Marathon for $250 a pop! You could cover the expenses with one solid month of marketing/working Originally Posted by bradjbeale

Thought exercises are always fun. I like to dive into ideas. To answer your question about Lawrence. Yes, people have looked at Lawrence and tried arguing that it should extend further to include prostitution - despite the Supreme Court saying that it doesn't.

So what makes you think you would win? What passage did you latch onto? Originally Posted by omakase

As I said before, Im not a lawyer and I am not as educated as some of you. Though, I was told about the case. I researched it. I read what I could understand about the case. But also found this explanation:

Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly. The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the 14th Amendment. Lawrence invalidated similar laws throughout the United States that criminalized sodomy between consenting adults acting in private, whatever the sex of the participants.[1]




My common sense tells no one ever takes a misdemeanor charge this far. I think it must have to apply to prostitution charges as well. Right?

I don't however understand the "commercial" issue. I mean I understand that has to do with the payment. But, how would they argue that? I would like for someone to explain that part.

Let me say this is hypothetical. I've never been arrested for prostitution and don't intend to be.

Do must of you agree that this could stand as a defense? Or?

It probably doesn't matter much what the members of this board think, except for the ones that have a law degree. There always seem to be subtle points that lay people won't pick up on, and it always seems tricky to predict how a court will rule. Even with trained lawyers it probably would be a good idea to ask for multiple opinions since different attorneys are likely to have differing opinions. Of course, the safest thing to do is not to get in a position that you have to test this.

My common sense tells no one ever takes a misdemeanor charge this far. I think it must have to apply to prostitution charges as well. Right? Originally Posted by Cynamon

I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to here but I'll attempt an answer. If you're wondering why anyone bothers to challenge a misdemeanor all the way to the Supreme Court, a lot of times political/special interest groups get involved in a case -- and, maybe most importantly, help fund the majority of it -- with higher purposes in mind. I'm not entirely sure this happened with Lawrence, but I'm willing to bet it did. The sodomy criminalization law by itself wasn't a big deal -- I mean, how do you even monitor that? But having that law repealed, and having consensual sex between adults declared a privacy right, was a big step towards gay rights. I'd bet some gay rights groups were heavily involved in the Lawrence case.

If that wasn't your question, I apologize for making you read that paragraph.

I don't however understand the "commercial" issue. I mean I understand that has to do with the payment. But, how would they argue that? I would like for someone to explain that part. Originally Posted by Cynamon

What exactly would you like explained? How would they argue what?