Moose v. MacDonald involved a challenge to Virginia’s “crimes against nature” statute. A federal district judge found that the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that this law had been invalidated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas. The state of Virginia sought Supreme Court review.
In the U.S. Supreme Court, CLDEF’s amicus curiae urged the Supreme Court to grant review of this case, arguing that the Fourth Circuit incorrectly concluded that Lawrence affected Virginia’s statute and that Lawrence required Virginia to repeal that statute. CLDEF’s brief also argued that the Supreme Court’s decisions do not make them “the law of the land,” but remain in the states’ legal code unless, and until, they are repealed or otherwise changed by the states’ legislatures. The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on October 7, 2013.
CLDEF Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Petition for Certiorari (August 26, 2013)