If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Santorum argues that legalizing consensual sex in private spaces logically leads to the legalization of other sexual practices like bigamy, polygamy, and adultery.
- In plain terms
- If the court allows private sexual choices, it should allow any other private sexual behavior.
- What can you take from it?
- The state should regulate personal sexual choices to protect societal foundations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does private consent justify all private actions?
- Where should legal boundaries for private behavior be drawn?
Another view
The analogy relies on a logical fallacy that equates distinct legal issues without proving they share the same moral weight.
More from Rick Santorum
As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else. It's being drawn to Iraq. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I …
Permalink to quote #4 The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there …
Permalink to quote #6 I mean people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings [...] There may be a need to look at tougher …
Permalink to quote #3
Related quotes
We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, the…
Rick SantorumRick Santorum quote #2 The issue presented is whether the Federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy, and hence invalidates the laws of the…
Byron WhiteByron White quote #4 The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there …
Rick SantorumRick Santorum quote #6