In a decision published Monday, the military’s highest court of criminal appeals declined to strike down the armed forces’ ban on private, consensual sodomy, known as Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The court reviewed the statute in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas in June 2003.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces left open whether it would declare private consensual sodomy involving service members unconstitutional in future cases. In United States v. Marcum, the court found that the appellant’s involvement with a subordinate took his conduct outside of the constitutional protection defined by the Supreme Court. The court’s opinion is available online at www.sldn.org.
‘The court sidestepped the issue of whether Article 125 is unconstitutional,’ SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn said. ‘In Lawrence, the Supreme Court took a clear and unmistakable view that government intrusion into private intimate relationships is unconstitutional. SLDN will now consider all options regarding further challenges to the military’s statute.’