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Anti-Sodomy Laws Stay On The Books, Thanks To Bobby Jindal’s Hand-Picked Speaker Of The House

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Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter (left) and Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives Chuck Kleckley

I’m certain that most of the people in the state of Louisiana are nice folks. I’m certain of that. But like every state, Louisiana has its share of obstinate, self-serving politicians. Really, there is no other term that describes perfectly a man who — ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional — refuses to repeal his state’s anti-sodomy laws from the books.

Currently there are 17 states that still “ban” sodomy. Ban is in quotes because those bans are literally illegal. And yet they remain, and they enable unscrupulous law enforcement officials to illegally and unconstitutionally arrest decent law-abiding citizens for the “crime” of having sex — even with their legally-married spouse.

Recently, the East Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sheriff’s department was caught by a local reporter arresting gay men for the “crime” of flirting, hooking up, or dating. At least 12 men were the victims of an unconstitutional sting operation during which cops would pretend to be gay, ask men out, then arrest them. One story even included this horrifying scenario:

An undercover East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy was staking out Manchac Park about 10 a.m. one day this month when a slow-moving sedan pulling into the parking lot caught his attention. The deputy parked alongside the 65-year-old driver and, after denying being a cop, began a casual conversation that was electronically monitored by a backup team nearby.

As the two men moved their chat to a picnic table, the deputy propositioned his target with “some drinks and some fun” back at his place, later inquiring whether the man had any condoms, according to court records. After following the deputy to a nearby apartment, the man was handcuffed and booked into Parish Prison on a single count of attempted crime against nature.

So let’s talk about Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter for just a moment. We all know that the Republican Senator from the great state of Louisiana was caught in 2007 with his pants down, figuratively, at least, paying to have sex with prostitutes instead of his wife Wendy, thanks to the infamous D.C. Madam scandal. And soon, it was revealed that Vitter’s extra-marital activities extended not just to the nation’s capitol, but to the happy fun time city of New Orleans. Senator Vitter refused to resign because, as he put it, “I believe I received forgiveness from God. I know I did from Wendy, and we put it behind us.”  There are nasty rumors about his supposed diaper fetish as well. But, like the Pope said, who am I to judge?

But the only reason Senator David Vitter wasn’t arrested? The statute of limitations was up.

Yes, that’s right. Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter didn’t get arrested for hiring prostitutes  because the law said he couldn’t be. But at least a dozen men in his home state were arrested — in grave violation of their constitutional rights — despite the very fact that the law said they couldn’t be. Well, to be accurate, the Supreme Court said they couldn’t be, but not the law in Louisiana.

So let’s talk about Republican Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal, the man who in 2012 actually said that allowing same-sex marriage in his state was a slippery slope to overturning “Second Amendment rights.” The man who, yes, partakes in exorcisms.

In 2012, Governor Jindal hand-picked state Rep. Chuck Kleckley to be the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

“Chuck is a true conservative who will be a Speaker for all of Louisiana,” Governor Jindal said, and posted this glowing endorsement to his Office of the Governor of Louisiana website:

“He’s proven that he can work across geographical and partisan lines to do the right thing for Louisiana.

“Chuck has been a strong partner and a consistent supporter of efforts to cut taxes, reduce the size of government and help grow Louisiana’s economy. We’ve spoken to members of the House and Chuck’s support exceeds a majority of the House.

“I look forward to working with Chuck as we continue to make Louisiana the best place in the world to raise a family and start a career.”

“Chuck is a true conservative who will be a Speaker for all of Louisiana.”

“Do the right thing for Louisiana.”

Apparently, doing the “right thing” for “all of Louisiana” doesn’t include repealing unconstitutional laws.

Speaker of the House Chuck Kleckley “was asked Monday at the Press Club of Baton Rouge whether he would lead an effort to repeal the law,” the AP reports. “He said no.”

To be clear, anti-sodomy laws apply to everyone. So, by definition, married heterosexual couples engaging in oral sex are in clear violation of Louisiana’s invalid and unenforceable crime against nature statute — R.S. 14:89.

Sodomy | Define Sodomy at Dictionary.com

Last month, after the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s department was caught arresting gay men illegally, they were quick to offer an apology. Their ludicrous excuse?

“This is a law that is currently on the Louisiana books, and the sheriff is charged with enforcing the laws passed by our Louisiana Legislature,” the Sheriff’s spokesperson initially said. “Whether the law is valid is something for the courts to determine, but the sheriff will enforce the laws that are enacted.”

The sheriff has been asking the state legislature since last month’s revelation of illegal arrests, to repeal the law.

Speaker Kleckley says “no.”

When Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had clearly gone overboard with insisting — all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — that his state’s anti-sodomy laws be upheld, MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell insisted Cuccinelli, now the GOP gubernatorial candidate, be asked if he’s ever violated the law, even with his wife.

Well, Speaker Kleckley?

Have you?

Image by Chuck Kleckley via Facebook

 

Related:

David Vitter Wants The FBI To Do Background Checks On Teachers To Save Children From People Like David Vitter

Sheriff Arrests 12 Gay Men For Sex Because Unconstitutional Anti-Sodomy Law Still ‘On The Books’

Louisiana Republican Announces Legislation To Ban Flying The Rainbow Flag

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‘I’m Not Suicidal’: Kari Lake Pushes Hillary Clinton Murder Conspiracy Theory

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April 22, 2024

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake is promoting a conspiracy theory suggesting Hillary Clinton wants to assassinate her. Her remarks came just one day before she lost her attempt to have the Supreme Court review what some have called her conspiracy-theory fueled lawsuit about electronic voting machines.

“Lake, who filed the lawsuit during her failed campaign for governor in 2022, challenged whether the state’s electronic voting machines assured ‘a fair and accurate vote.’ Two lower courts dismissed the suit, finding that Lake and former Republican state lawmaker Mark Finchem had not been harmed in a way that allowed them to sue,” CNN reported Monday.

Also on Monday Law&Crime reported that when she filed her lawsuit, a Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson “rejected Lake’s cybersecurity claim, telling Law&Crime it was ‘implausible and conspiratorial.'”

Democracy Docket, founded by top Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias, called it “the end of the road for a conspiratorial lawsuit,” and Lake and Fincham, “election deniers.”

READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

Lake, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has yet to concede the 2020 election, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, has a history of pushing exaggerated and baseless claims.

On Sunday, as MeidasTouch Network reported, Lake promoted an old, anti-Clinton conspiracy theory but twisted it to try to make it appear she was in danger from former U.S. Secretary of State and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Lake on Newsmax listened to a clip of Secretary Clinton calling Trump’s fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin a “bromance,” and saying the ex-president is “just gaga over Putin, because Putin does what he would like to do: kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive, you know, journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance.”

Then Lake promoted a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory by responding, “Oh, boy. Oh, that’s really rich coming from a woman like Hillary Clinton, who’s, how many of her friends have just like, mysteriously died or committed suicide?”

“I mean, honestly, that’s rich of her. What President Trump wants is to root out the corruption and deliver our government back to We The People and she looks very nervous. She talked about her friend Mark Elias, Mark Elias has meddled in in his and his cohorts have meddled in the elections.”

She called Democratic policies, “destructive, deadly and frankly, in some ways, diabolical,”and added, “it’s almost comical that Hillary Clinton is talking about Trump wanting to kill his opponents.”

READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

“I just want to say as I’m as I’m speaking about this topic, I want everyone out there to know that my brakes on my car have recently been checked and they work. I’m not suicidal. And Hillary, I don’t mean any harm to you. Please don’t send your henchmen out to me. We understand what you’re about. ”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide

 

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‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

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April 22, 2024

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MSNBC top host Rachel Maddow, inside Manhattan’s Criminal Courthouse on Monday declared Donald Trump appeared “old and tired and mad,” as she delivered observations about the ex-president on trial for 34 counts of falsification of business records alleged in the alleged pursuit of election interference to protect his 2016 presidential run.

Trump “seems considerably older, and he seems annoyed. Resigned, maybe, angry. he seems like a man who’s miserable to be here,” the award-winning journalist told MSNBC viewers Monday afternoon.

“I’m no body language expert,” she conceded, “and this is just my observation. He seemed old and tired and mad.”

The New York Times’ Susanne Craig, from inside the courthouse Monday morning reported: “Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.”

The Biden campaign was only too happy to pick up and report Craig’s observation, adding “feeble.”

Former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, pointing to his piece at The Atlantic, wrote of Trump: “He has charmed & conned, schemed & marauded his way through life. He was bred that way. But the weariness & vulnerability captured in courtroom images betray a growing sense in Trump that he could wind up as the thing his old man most reviled:
A loser.”

Watch Maddow’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

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‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

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16 hours ago

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April 22, 2024

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Prosecutors for the State of New York in their opening statement drew a direct line between the October 2016  “Access Hollywood” leaked audio and Donald Trump’s alleged “hush money” payoff to two women, including the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, telling the jury it was “election fraud, pure and simple.”

Legal experts are dissecting the prosecution’s opening argument. Professor of law, MSNBC contributor and former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann summed it up, saying New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg “squarely places the NY criminal trial in the election interference/corruption bucket– exactly what the DC and GA indictments allege, just 4 years later.”

“And the NY alleged ‘cover up’ is reminiscent of the two MAL [Mar-a-Lago] alleged obstruction schemes post-presidency, to keep prosecutors from uncovering evidence of that scheme,” Weissmann added.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo late Monday morning in his 45-minute opening argument told jurors, “This case is about criminal conspiracy and a cover up,” according to MSNBC’s Joyce Vance.

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“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo told jurors, CNN reports. “Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again.”

“This was a planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures,” Colangelo, a former U.S. Department of Justice Acting Associate Attorney General, told jurors.

“Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign,” Colangelo added. “’So at Trump’s direction, Cohen negotiated the deal to buy Daniels’ story,’ and prevent it from becoming public before the election.”

“It was election fraud, pure and simple.”

Vance, an MSNBC legal analyst, professor of law and former U.S. Attorney, explains: “The scheme the prosecution is outlining is catch & kill to elect Trump-awful but lawful. Trump crossed the line into illegality when he created false business records to conceal his payments to Cohen to cover up the payments to Stormy Daniels.”

READ MORE: Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

“It’s always the cover up,” she adds.

Professor of law and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman adds, the prosecution told jurors “a straight election-interference story.”

Colangelo, Litman says, told jurors that Trump’s then personal attorney Micheal Cohen “then discussed the [Stormy] situation with Trump who was adamant he did not want the story to come out. Another story…on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign.”

MSNBC legal contributor Katie Phang describes Colangelo’s opening argument, saying he is “working methodically and chronologically through the conspiracy, identifying the main characters and their involvement. He speaks clearly and succintly [sic].”

Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in his New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of hush money to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which could be deemed election interference.

Watch an MSNBC clip below or at this link.

 

READ MORE: Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

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