Northwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich believes that that bestiality is constitutionally protected private sexual activity, and thinks that a recent federal court ruling supports his claim. This post examines the issue briefly. North Carolina law. Bestiality is illegal under G.S. 14-177, which makes it a Class I felony to “commit the crime against nature, with mankind or beast.” See State v. O’Keefe, 263 N.C. 53 (1964) (“In this jurisdiction crime against nature embraces . . . bestiality as [that offense was] known and defined at common law.”). A couple of months ago, a bestiality case arising in Raeford, North Carolina, attracted national attention. Other states’ laws. I haven’t researched the question myself, but Professor Kontorovich asserts that “[m]ost states criminalize zoophilia.” The constitutional argument. Professor Kontorovich argues that “[t]he 14th Amendment has been interpreted to recognize a broad and very valuable liberty interest in sexual autonomy. Constitutional doctrine regards private sexual choices as vastly more important than other kinds of choices, and thus presumptively protected. . . . Bestiality is private sexual conduct and thus prima facie requires a very good justification to regulate.” He doesn’t think that animal welfare is such a reason, at least not categorically, noting that “many European countries make zoophilia legal, but punishable under existing animal welfare laws when cruelty can be shown.” Professor Kontorovich isn’t totally alone in his thinking. In Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), Justice Scalia argued that state laws against bestiality – among other types of sexual conduct – [...]
Faculty Coordinators
