Daily Read: Same-Sex Marriage and Adultery

The Court's pending (albeit again postponed) consideration of the certiorari petitions raising the issue of same-sex marriage and the prominence of adultery in the news, should heighten interest in Professor Peter Nicolas' article, The Lavender Letter: Applying the Law of Adultery to Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Conduct, published last year in Florida Law Review, with a draft available on ssrn.

ConLawProf Nicolas (pictured) stresses the criminal context, but also considers the civil context.  He ultimately concludes that while it may be ultimately true that adultery laws "and other statutory schemes that take adultery into account" will be definitively repealed or declared unconstitutional, they are now "part of the package of rights and responsibilities that gays and lesbians have fought so hard for in marriage litigation." 

For those considering the constitutional relationship between "adultery" and "sodomy," Nicolas article provides a different perspective.

RR