The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals declared the so-called sexual-misconduct law unconstitutional based on a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned a similar Texas law on due-process grounds. The judges said no other Alabama court had addressed the law’s constitutionality.
LGBT rights advocates hailed the decision, while the prosecutor who had tried to convict a man under the law after the defendant allegedly forced another man to have sex said it hurts the victim.
Alabama is one of a dozen states that still have laws prohibiting consensual homosexual sex, according to a survey by the Human Rights Campaign, a national group advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The court issued its ruling Friday.
