Intimate Associations and Public Employment
In the past, I have written about my belief that public employees’ rights to sexual privacy should enjoy the same protection afforded First Amendment rights to speech and religion.
So far, courts have been unreceptive to my claims that post-Lawrence v. Texas, the right to sexual privacy represents a heightened constitutional right which should lead only to employer interference with that right if the employer has a legitimate and substantial justification for so doing. The most recent example of courts’ lack of receptivity to this argument comes from the Eleventh Circuit yesterday.