Singles in Virginia can finally have sex without fear prosecution after Friday’s ruling by the state’s highest court that an archaic law prohibiting sex between unmarried people was unconstitutional.
The unanimous ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court was based on last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Lawrence vs. Texas case, which voided an anti-sodomy law in Texas on the basis that consensual sex was afforded protections of the constitution by “substantive due process.”
A woman who had filed a lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages from a man who infected her with herpes was responsible for bringing the case before the case to the court. A circuit judge who dismissed her case ruled that she was not entitled to damages because she had participated in an illegal activity, referring to the law against sex between consenting unwedded adults.
By declaring the law, which had been on the books since the early 1800s, unconstitutional the Supreme Court reinstated the lawsuit.
A lawyer familiar with the case told the Associated Press that the law had last been enforced in 1847.
Legal experts believe Friday’s ruling suggests that a similar anti-sodomy law on the Virginia books would also be found unconstitutional, though the court did not explicitly state that in their ruling.
However, the justices noted that their ruling "does not affect the commonwealth's police powers regarding regulation of public fornication, prostitution, or other such crimes."
