Question: Now that the Court has held that the Constitution secures
a right to have sex with consenting adults, is it still constitutionally
permissible for states to make statutory rape a strict liability offense as
to age?
After all, even child pornography prosecutions require some showing
of scienter, see New York v. Ferber, since the theory is that otherwise the
strict liability ban on unprotected conduct may also deter protected
conduct. If "I reasonably believed she was 18" is a defense in a child
pornography case, why wouldn't it similarly be a defense in a statutory rape
case?
Eugene
