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Sexing Up a Day in Court
The dictionary defines “vice” as a “moral failing” or a “bad habit.” If I were writing on a blank slate, I would define it as an area of criminal codes where people with power and time on their hands attempt to impose their values on others. Perhaps that comes from being forced by the dictionary to look at enchiladas as a vice.
It’s a valid criticism of my proposal that all crimes substitute a collective judgment for an individual judgment. Most criminal codes start off with killing and stealing as crimes unless the victims are American Indians and the public support drops off a tiny bit with every crime added.
There are reasonable arguments to be had even when we could all agree that the conduct is wrong, because criminal law is such a blunt instrument that it just makes no sense to attempt making all bad conduct a crime. Most of us would agree that it’s wrong to fail to pay a contractor for materials furnished and wages earned. But how can it be a crime if the president of the United States made it part of his business plan?
The line beyond which conduct is criminal moves over time, sometimes drawing back from crime and leaving a civil wrong and sometimes going all the way from criminal to legal. Sexual activity with a person of the same sex has gone from a capital crime to legal in a relative eyeblink. The line moved in the other direction when…
