For Tvash

[JayB]

ACLU: Sex in restroom stalls is private

 

Tue Jan 15, 11:15 PM ET

 

ST. PAUL, Minn. - In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.

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Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.

 

The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

 

That means the state cannot prove Craig was inviting an undercover officer to have sex in public, the ACLU wrote.

 

The Republican senator was arrested June 11 by an undercover officer who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.

 

The ACLU argued that even if Craig was inviting the officer to have sex, his actions wouldn't be illegal.

 

"The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom," the ACLU wrote in its brief.

 

The ACLU also noted that Craig was originally charged with interference with privacy, which it said was an admission by the state that people in the bathroom stall expect privacy.

 

Craig at one point said he would resign but now says he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009."

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_us/craig_appeal_1

[tvashtarkatena]

"the right of the people to sweep their bare arms, shall not be infringed."

 

[rob]

kudos to the ACLU for defending this guy

[tvashtarkatena]

"The ACLU: Privates privacy privation prevention since 1920."

Edited January 16, 2008 by tvashtarkatena

[JayB]

I'm all for the preservation of individual freedoms, and will support the rights of consenting adults to do whatever they want to each other in private - but it seems as though this falls squarely in the realm of public spaces where there are competing perogatives that have to be reconciled.

 

If someone wants to dress up in a Klan outfit and burn a cross on their own front yard while painting a swastika on their garage door - more power to them. If they want to do the same in a public restroom, then clearly the situation is different, as their doing so would infringe on the rights of others to use public facilities without being subject to certain nuisances, threats, acts of intimidation, etc...

[olyclimber]

could you weigh in on "accidental touching" and "intra-stall communication etiquette"?

[tvashtarkatena]

Book this man for attempted trolling

[billcoe]

I wonder if this might not be what the framers of the US constitution had in mind all those years ago....

 

I'm waiting until "Cruel and Unusual" is finally interpreted to mean being put in any of the existing jails (as it's very, very cruel) and all the criminals are set free pending locating dormitories with wide screen TV's for them.

[Winter]

so the right to privacy covers both shitting in a bathroom stall and screwing in a bathroom stall but its ok for the government to mine data and conduct wiretaps without warrants. i wonder if all this falls within the "original intent" of the constitution.

 

 

[tvashtarkatena]

wire tapping, foot tapping...it's all just human beings trying to connect with one another.

[olyclimber]

i think we should all just feel lucky that they care what the average joe on the street has to say enough to wiretap them. it feels good to be noticed.

[tvashtarkatena]

I'll say. Two threads in my honor today. I feel...special.

[lI1|1!]

i think we should all just feel lucky that they care what the average joe on the street has to say enough to wiretap them. it feels good to be noticed.

 

so basically you have a wide stance on the issue?

 

[olyclimber]

i generally use two stalls when i have to take a crap

[Hugh Conway]

i generally use two stalls when i have to take a crap

 

one for you and one for someone to catch?

[Dechristo]

i generally use two stalls when i have to take a crap

 

duid, you don't need to move to another after you've filled one

[tvashtarkatena]

I can't let a thread with my name on it end on a disgusting note like this. Let's get back to JayB's treatise concerning the right to gloryhole.

Edited January 18, 2008 by tvashtarkatena

[ClimbingPanther]

Let's get back

I believe that's Sir Mixalot's treatise

[tvashtarkatena]

Moderators, please move this to the Goddamn Bush thread.

Edited January 18, 2008 by tvashtarkatena