A lawsuit challenging California’s laws against prostitution just got a much-needed boost. The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, together with a raft of other organizations committed to gender equality, has filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit, or rather its appeal of a district court’s ruling against the original suit. This could mean it will be harder for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court, where the case now sits, to dismiss the lawsuit’s arguments out of hand.
The original lawsuit, filed in March 2015, argued that laws making consensual commercial sexual activity between adults illegal were unconstitutional because they infringe on privacy rights protected by the 14th Amendment. As the ACLU brief points out, the Supreme Court, in its 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, recognized that “liberty gives substantial protection to adult persons in deciding how to conduct their private lives in matters pertaining to sex.” The 2003 ruling held that a Texas law classifying consensual adult homosexual intercourse as illegal sodomy violated the privacy and liberty rights to engage in private intimate conduct. The California lawsuit argues the same could be applied to consensual commercial sex.Now that the ACLU has jumped into the fray, all eyes are on the United States Court of Appeal, Ninth Circuit, to see what happens next.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison..._12488532.html