Constitutional Barriers to Civil and Criminal Restrictions on Pre- and Extramarital Sex

• NCJ Number: 136634
• Journal: Harvard Law Review Volume: 104 Issue: 7 Dated: (May 1991) Pages: 1660-1680
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 21 pages
• Corporate Author: Harvard Law Review Assoc
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This note examines current civil and criminal prohibitions on premarital sexual intercourse and similar constraints on extramarital sex.

Abstract

The vast majority of civil and criminal prohibitions on premarital sexual intercourse violate Federal constitutional guarantees. Limited regulation of adultery is permissible, but the majority of governmental restrictions fall short of constitutional mandates. Constitutional protection of intimate sexual activity ensures that legitimate State objectives are realized in a nondiscriminatory way and without permitting the government to control fundamentally private activities. 145 footnotes