Fornication - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

Fornication�now more commonly referred to as premarital sex�is when two unmarried individuals engage in sexual intercourse. Traditionally, laws against fornication referred specifically to heterosexual couples, as separate laws governed homosexual relations. Further, some jurisdiction�s fornication laws hinged only on a woman�s marital status, with no consideration given to a man�s. In these jurisdictions, intercourse between a married man and an unmarried woman would be fornication whereas intercourse between a married woman and an unmarried man was adultery.

Today, fornication laws cannot be enforced due to the Supreme Court�s decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003). The Court ruled that a person�s private sexual acts are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment�s Due Process Clause. Thus, government actors cannot intrude into and criminalize these personal actions. That being said, a few states still have fornication laws on the books. Since the laws cannot be enforced, they also cannot be challenged in court since a challenge requires actual harm, not just disagreement. As such, the laws will likely remain until legislators formally repeal them.