WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Courtwon’t hear an appeal of a lower court ruling striking down Virginia’s anti-sodomy law.
The high court on Monday rejected a request by Virginia Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli who is seeking to reinstate a sweeping anti-sodomy state law that prohibits oral and anal sex reinstated.
In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond declared Virginia’s law unconstitutional.
In 2005, a judge convicted William Scott MacDonald of criminal solicitation for allegedly demanding oral sex from a 17-year-old girl. His conviction occurred two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Lawrence v. Texasdecision effectively struck down anti-sodomy laws in that state and several others.
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Virginia’s so-called “crimes against nature” law was the basis for MacDonald’s conviction.
In his appeal, Cuccinelli claimed that Lawrence v. Texas decision applied only to sex acts involving consenting adults, not those between an adult and a minor.
But the Fourth Circuit court rejected that interpretation and the U.S. Supreme Court said it won’t reconsider that decision.
