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The Pariah Principle

dc.contributor.authorSherry, Suzanna
dc.contributor.authorFarber, Daniel A., 1950-
dc.date.accessioned2014-06-13T20:05:58Z
dc.date.available2014-06-13T20:05:58Z
dc.date.issued1996
dc.identifier.citation13 Const. Comment. 257 (1996)en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1803/6474
dc.descriptionarticle published in law journalen_US
dc.description.abstractThe Supreme Court's recent decision in Romer v. Evans' has caused both joy and consternation. Among legal scholars, however, it has mostly engendered puzzlement. The Court explicitly avoided the most doctrinally plausible grounds for invalidating Colorado's ban on anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals. Instead it purported to strike down the state constitutional amendment under minimal scrutiny or rational basis review. The word on the street-or, in the case of lawyers and law professors, the word on the internet-is that Romer cannot mean what it says, but instead must be a way-station to declaring homosexuality a quasi-suspect classification like gender or illegitimacy. The speculation is that the Court will eventually use Romer to strike down prohibitions on same-sex marriages and other restrictions on gay rights. We believe this line of reasoning gives the Romer majority too little credit for intellectual honesty, if perhaps too much credit for progressive impulses.2 In this essay, we suggest that the decision in Romer means no more and no less than what it says (or at least tries to say): that Colorado's Amendment 2 is invalid regardless of the level of judicial scrutiny. Moreover, we contend that this conclusion does not significantly expand current law but is instead perfectly justifiable under existing precedent. The decision also does not necessarily threaten most other restrictions on homosexuals, including bans on same-sex marriage.en_US
dc.format.extent1 PDF (29 pages)en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherConstitutional Commentaryen_US
dc.subject.lcshGays -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United Statesen_US
dc.subject.lcshUnited States. Supreme Court -- Trials, litigation, etcen_US
dc.titleThe Pariah Principleen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US


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