should sex between consenting adults ever be illegal?

[cthulu2016]

53. The whole nexus of decisions

from Griswold to Lawrence making sexual association among adults within a constitutional sphere of privacy and free association that government cannot criminalize.

This law is no more or less valid than the Texas sodomy law that was struck down in Lawrence. That law held that the state had a legitimate interest is restricting consensual sexual behavior between adults that a majority of the Texas legislature thought to be somehow bad.

The idea of privacy in Lawrence is not that gay sex is good. It is that gay sex is, like any other kind of consensual activity between adults, is outside the state's authority to regulate.

One could write a book about how unwholesome teacher/adult-student sex is. But people have written many books about how unwholesome sodomy is. Griswold wasn't about whether birth control is good. Lawrence wasn't about whether sodomy is good.

The thing does not hinge on whether something is considered unwholesome. It is beyond the state's power to criminalize "unwholesome" sex between consenting adults.

Even if we took it as a given that sodomy is evil it would still be outside the scope of legitimate interest.

As grounds for firing a teacher? Sure. No problem. But if this can properly be a crime then any sex act or any "inappropriate" partnering can be criminalize. Which we know it cannot.