Making fornication illegal?

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It seems to me that the only way to stop the FLDS people from engaging in polygamy is to make fornication illegal… since they only “marry” each other in non-public marriages… in secret. Technically they are not married at all, only committing fornication/adultery…

Actually, i found out that, at least up to some time ago, adultery IS illegal in the state of Florida and possibly elsewhere…

anyway… i can’t figure out why any woman would want to share her man with another woman… and according to the book i read Stolen Innocence, there IS a lot of jealousy and “power play” stuff going on in those “marriages”…

Weird…

(makes you appreciate Catholicism all the more…).
 
If fornication were made illegal, I have a feeling that the laws would soon be revoked, since I don’t doubt a LOT of teenagers (and those who act like them) would be filing bogus charges to get back at a significant other.
 
There are many laws on the books that are not enforced/unconstitutional but have not been removed from the books.
In this country,there are no constitutional laws what consenting adults do in private.
 
In this state, as in most, engaging in sex outside of marriage is a criminal law violation.

The problem comes in places like TX (which went to the supreme court) where homosexual sex was treated differently than heterosexual sex acts. There’s this thing in the constitution about equal protection of laws …

The last prosecution for fornication I can recall (other than Mel Reynolds) was in the sixties with a woman seeking child support in NJ for a child in grammar school. When she appeared in court visibly pregnant, the judge tried to charge her with fornication. The charges were swiftly dropped. What if she had been raped?
 
I don’t have enough info & haven’t thought about it long enough to give a dyed in the wool opinion on this but i am leaning, at this point, toward saying that making fornication illegal would be a very good thing…

It would cut down on rape because EVERY act done outside marriage would be illegal and women would not have that “his word against mine” thing to deal with in court…

It would definitely cut down on adultery, which is still illegal in some states… (so i’ve heard… at least in FL).

it would make people see that sex is a serious thing, not just some temporary pleasure, the consequences of which people don’t have to be held responsible for…

The consequences of fornication are so awful that maybe it woiuld be better to outlaw it… i know the ACLU & others would block such a thing… but whatever…
 
The fact that fornication is illegal means very litte (except for one factor noted below). Do you want prosecutions for sex outside of marriage? That is, do you want the legal authorities snooping around folks with as many people now who are married but have different last names?

However, folks should understand that a person cannot enter into a contract to perform an illegal act. So a person could not sue for fraud if he or she were paying for a sex act. Also, those ‘palimony’ suits cannot be enforced because they have the illegal purpose of folks having sex outside of marriage.
 
Beau_Ouiville said:
The fact that fornication is illegal means very litte (except for one factor noted below). Do you want prosecutions for sex outside of marriage?
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If it was made illegal, Yes.
That is, do you want the legal authorities snooping around folks with as many people now who are married but have different last names?
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crimes are committed in private all the time and no one is “snooping around” trying to find them out…
However, folks should understand that a person cannot enter into a contract to perform an illegal act. So a person could not sue for fraud if he or she were paying for a sex act. Also, those ‘palimony’ suits cannot be enforced because they have the illegal purpose of folks having sex outside of marriage.
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i don’t understand that last paragraph…
 
Unenforcible laws are such a wonderful way of bringing law itself into disrepute.
 
distracted said:
It seems to me that the only way to stop the FLDS people from engaging in polygamy is to make fornication illegal… since they only “marry” each other in non-public marriages… in secret. Technically they are not married at all, only committing fornication/adultery…

Actually, i found out that, at least up to some time ago, adultery IS illegal in the state of Florida and possibly elsewhere…

anyway… i can’t figure out why any woman would want to share her man with another woman… and according to the book i read Stolen Innocence, there IS a lot of jealousy and “power play” stuff going on in those “marriages”…

Weird…

(makes you appreciate Catholicism all the more…).
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This is perhaps the silliest thing I have ever heard. How would one go about prosectuting those engaged in the illegal act? And if one brought charges against another, they would only be incriminating themselves, something which the constitution says you don’t have to do, that’s why OJ Simpson didn’t take the stand in either of his trials. So by following the law, if Bob and Sally, are two consenting adults and they have sex, and Sally decides to bring Bob up on those charges, she is ultimately convicting herself as well.

Adultery is/was illegal because it ultimately breaks a binding contract between two people. The FLDS have “secret” ceremonies because polygamy is against the law, so even if fornication were made illegal, what difference would it make to them, b/c they are already breaking the law?
 
Shannon9791 said:
This is perhaps the silliest thing I have ever heard. How would one go about prosectuting those engaged in the illegal act? And if one brought charges against another, they would only be incriminating themselves, something which the constitution says you don’t have to do, that’s why OJ Simpson didn’t take the stand in either of his trials. So by following the law, if Bob and Sally, are two consenting adults and they have sex, and Sally decides to bring Bob up on those charges, she is ultimately convicting herself as well.

Adultery is/was illegal because it ultimately breaks a binding contract between two people. The FLDS have “secret” ceremonies because polygamy is against the law, so even if fornication were made illegal, what difference would it make to them, b/c they are already breaking the law?
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If a man raped a woman (w/ fornic beging illegal), she would be more protected & would not necessarily be incriminating herself… and i never said i was in favor of making it illegal… i said i was not sure, didn’t have enough info…

also:

be more specific: WHAt is the silliest thing…?
 
distracted said:
If a man raped a woman (w/ fornic beging illegal), she would be more protected & would not necessarily be incriminating herself… and i never said i was in favor of making it illegal… i said i was not sure, didn’t have enough info…

also:

be more specific: WHAt is the silliest thing…?
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Making fornication illegal is the silliest thing. If fornication were illegal it wouldn’t trump rape because making fornication a felony would be outrageous. So if a woman were raped and fornication were illegal, her rapist would be charged with rape, not fornication. Normally, prosecutors go for the bigger crimes if there are multiple crimes committed. Also, fornication would more than likely be defined as consenual sex, to distinguish it from rape and other sex crimes. So in your case, no, the victim wouldn’t be incriminating herself because she was the victim. As I said before, the only way for one person to make the claim of fornication is to implicate themself or watch someone else do it, record it, and then make good and sure they know exactly who’s on that tape. And most states already have Lewd conduct laws for people who decide to get randy in public, and laws against prostituion but then again, they still have to be caught, and that’s the problem.

Besides, our jails are over crowded as is, do you really want to send a generation of teenagers to jail because they had sex? Do we really need big brother standing in our bedrooms monitoring who we have sex with? I’ve said this before, and I’ll stand by it, kids are going to have sex. Illegal or not, it’s going to happen. We need to teach sex education in high schools, but not the watered down “Just use condoms and BC pills and everything will be OK” garbage. There should be a good abstinence program to go along with all the facts about the diseases, the problems with contraceptives and why none of them are 100% effective.

I apologize if I came off sounding smug, but the idea of making fornication illegal struck me as humorous in an Orwellian kinda way.
 
Normally, prosecutors go for the bigger crimes if there are multiple crimes committed.
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It’s more complicated than that. The more charges they can throw at a criminal, the more likely the criminal will be to take a plea, and save the state the cost of a prosecution.

For instance, if a criminal enters a bank, waving a gun, shoots it into the ceiling, yells, "Everybody down or you’re dead! and “Gimme the money or I’ll shoot you!” he has committed the following crimes:

Brandishing a gun,
Discharging a firearm in a public place,
two counts of terrorisitic threatening,
and armed robbery.

So the prosecutor charges him with all 5 counts, and he pleads to armed robbery. He’s off the street, and we save money.

So throwing an additional charge of fornication at a rapist could be beneficial.

But back to the topic. I doubt that I will see the day where new laws against fornication are made in the US, or the old ones enforced.

And Matrix Refugee has a good point!

God, please form all our consciences to your will,

Ruthie
 
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