57 Fla. L. Rev. 1065 (2005) | | | |

TEXT :: William Eskridge’s Body Politics: Lawrence v. Texas and the Constitution of Disgust and Contagion is an unusually rhetorical piece. At times it appears that Eskridge thinks that if he characterizes his opponents’ position as one of “disgust” and fear of “contagion” often enough (by my count, 142 and 58 times, respectively), that will make it so. On numerous occasions, he goes beyond the pale of responsible scholarship, in my opinion, not only characterizing his opponents’ position himself (from an external standpoint), but also formulating their own position in those terms, and doing so utterly without justification.

Of course, articles can be highly rhetorical and still have keen analysis. Unfortunately, we have to wait a long time to get around to any serious constitutional argument by Professor Eskridge in his article, and in the end, that argument is not particularly satisfactory.