Alito, J., dissenting
(or credentials) for immorality, moral turpitude, or unprofessionalism,” and, the survey added, “[h]omosexuality is considered to fall within all three categories.”[1]
The situation in California is illustrative. California laws prohibited individuals who engaged in “immoral conduct” (which was construed to include homosexual behavior), as well as those convicted of “sex offenses” (like sodomy), from employment as teachers. Cal. Educ. Code Ann. §§13202, 13207, 13209, 13218, 13255 (West 1960). The teaching certificates of individuals convicted of engaging in homosexual acts were revoked. See, e.g., Sarac v. State Bd. of Ed., 249 Cal. App. 2d 58, 62–64, 57 Cal. Rptr. 69, 72–73 (1967) (upholding revocation of secondary teaching credential from teacher who was convicted of engaging in homosexual conduct on public beach), overruled in part, Morrison v. State Bd. of Ed., 1 Cal. 3d 214, 461 P. 2d 375 (1969).
In Florida, the legislature enacted laws authorizing the revocation of teaching certificates for “misconduct involving moral turpitude,” Fla. Stat. Ann. §229.08(16) (1961), and this law was used to target homosexual conduct. In 1964, a legislative committee was wrapping up a 6-year campaign to remove homosexual teachers from public schools and state universities. As a result of these efforts, the state board of education apparently revoked at least 71 teachers’ certificates and removed at least 14 university professors. Eskridge, Dishonorable Passions, at 103.
Individuals who engaged in homosexual acts also faced the loss of other occupational licenses, such as those needed to work as a “lawyer, doctor, mortician, [or] beautician.”[2] See, e.g., Florida Bar v. Kay, 232 So. 2d 378 (Fla. 1970) (attorney disbarred after conviction for homosexual conduct in
- ↑ Rivera, Our Strait-Laced Judges: The Legal Position of Homosexual Persons in the United States, 30 Hastings L. J. 799, 861 (1979).
- ↑ Eskridge, Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet: Establishing Conditions for Lesbian and Gay Intimacy, Nomos, and Citizenship, 1961–1981, 25 Hofstra L. Rev. 817, 819 (1997).
