From the Desert - A blog from the Arizona Desert

On Tuesday, the ACLU filed an amicus brief to the Minnesota 4th District Court citing a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

The brief was filed in defence of Republican Senator Larry Craig who was arrested and charged with lewd conduct in June 2007.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said, "The real motive behind secret sting operations like the one that resulted in Sen. Craig's arrest is not to stop people from inappropriate activity. It is to make as many arrests as possible - arrests that sometimes unconstitutionally trap innocent people." Solicitation for private sex is protected speech under the First Amendment, the ACLU argues.

Romero wrote, "If the police really want to stop people from having sex in public bathrooms, they should put up a sign banning sex in the restroom and send in a uniformed officer to patrol periodically. That works."

But Patrick Hogan of the Metropolitan Airports Commission said Monday that Craig's arrest and at least 41 similar arrests were made lawfully. "Engaging in public sex in a bathroom is a crime and most people understand that without putting up a sign," Hogan said.

"We saw a lot of communication about this particular bathroom on Web sites, and if we make it known that we're aware of it we can't be expected to enforce the law as effectively."

Hogan added, "We believe the charges fit the crime and Sen. Craig agreed to the charges as part of plea negotiations."

Craig, widely regarded before his arrest as a family-values conservative, was arrested for lewd conduct in a men's bathroom on June 11, 2007. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct on August 8, 2007.

The ACLU's defence of homosexual sex in public will come as no surprise to those who have followed its years of work as one of the strongest supporters of the homosexual movement. It has also been in the forefront of the perennial efforts by secularists and the hard left to ban public displays of Christianity, particularly at Christmas. Nativity scenes and the Ten Commandments, mentions of God or Christian themes in public speeches at schools and colleges, and the teaching of alternatives to Darwinian theory have all come under attack from the organisation.

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