Full 4th Circuit Unanimously Rejects Cuccinelli’s Bid To Reinstate Anti-Sodomy Law

A week or so ago this blog looked at the petition files by Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit - one of the most conservative circuit courts - requesting a rehearing en banc after a three judge panel of the Court struck down Virginia's sodomy statute as unconstitutional.  The statute, which was indirectly ruled unconstitutional in the context of consensual gay sex by the decision in Lawrence v. Texas, basically makes anything other than "missionary position" sex between opposite gender individuals a felony.   It goes without saying that the Christofascists and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation LOVE the sodomy statute.  This reality, combined with Kookinelli's obsession with regulating other people's sexual activity and gay sex in particular, are the likely reason for his petition for a rehearing en banc - a hearing by all of the judges on the 4th Circuit rather than a mere three judge panel.  Now, the 4th Circuit has responded and basically told Kookinelli to take a hike.  Here are excerpts from Think Progress: 

Late last month, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) filed a petition asking the full United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reinstate Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” law, which makes oral and anal sex a felony. A three-judge panel of that same court had struck down the law, noting that it cannot be squared the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which prohibits laws criminalizing non-commercial sexual activity between consenting adults. Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit issued an order rejecting Cuccinelli’s request. Notably, not one of the court’s judges requested a poll of the court to consider Cuccinelli’s petition, so his petition received no support whatsoever from the court’s members.

As ThinkProgress noted last week, this case involved a felony prosecution of a 47 year-old man charged with soliciting oral sex from a 17 year-old girl. While a blanket ban on oral sex is unconstitutional under Lawrence, Virginia is permitted to pass laws criminalizing sex with people who are underage. Indeed, the Virginia legislature considered a bill which would have done exactly that, by bringing the “Crimes Against Nature” law in compliance with Lawrence, in 2004. Cuccinelli voted against that bill because he wanted to keep an outright ban on gay sex on the books, even if that ban was unconstitutional.

In other words, if Cuccinelli had not refused to bring state law into compliance with the Constitution, he wouldn’t have lost his case before the Fourth Circuit.

The question now becomes whether or not Kookinelli files an appeal with the U. S. Supreme Court and squanders more tax payer  money.  Given his pattern of filing losing lawsuits, I suspect that he will now turn to the U. S. Supreme Court which hopefully likewise kick him to the curb.  The man, in my opinion, is certifiably insane.