Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Constitutional Law Blogs -> Meeting the Sin Laws

Constitutional Law

: Meeting the Sin Laws

The Party of the First Part

By C.S. Wiggins

I just finished reading The Party of the First Part, by Adam Freedman. What a super book. I wasn't sure what to expect, given that reading about 'words' and their origins can be like, well, yucky. None of that here. Mr. Freedman's writing is devilishly sharp, crisp and probing while maintaining a light feel. I don't usually laugh aloud while reading books that were not written by David Sedaris, but I did here. Did you know:

• In a segment entitled, "I Love Ewe," we learn about the statute of Henry VIII, which states that buggery -- a term defined as "a crime against nature" -- can take place "with mankind or beast." Ever since then the definition of buggery has included bestiality. Which, as you know, prohibits "laws against nature" with animals. In Virginia a bestiality statute outlaws sex only with a brute animal. Eeewwww.


• The Anti-Beer Act (signed into law by President Harding in 1921) closed a loophole in the Volstead Act (Prohibition). I knew that Prohibition-era doctors were "prescribing" liquor for "medicinal purposes," but I didn't know that the legislature was cruel enough to pass the "Anti-Beer Act" to prevent off-label uses. Double eeewwwww.
  

The book is a delightful read -- and a super addition to your reference shelf.

Full post as published by Meeting the Sin Laws on October 15, 2007 (boomark / email).