That should get me some more readers!

Things are heating up at the Volokh Conspiracy where the newest full-time Conspirator, Ilya Somin, has suggested that bans on public nudity and sex should be abolished (with a few exceptions) for moral and policy (rather than legal) reasons. Somin is not happy with laws that use the force of government to restrict the peaceful (although offensive to many) behavior of others merely because most people think the behavior is “Yucky.”

Eugene Volokh has also posted, coming to the defense of such bans for what seem to me to be rather flimsy attempts to justify the enforcement of conventional disapproval.

I’m with Ilya on this one. And, I think he makes a great addition to the Conspiracy. His posts have been excellent.

But, this issue is just another instance of the problem being the difficulty in satisfying people about what should be allowed “in public.” Many of these issues would largely go away if we would shrink public spaces and allow private people to control what’s allowed on their property. I suspect that most private places would support widely-held preferences and forbid behavior that offends many customers. And, there would be other places where such things would be tolerated, or even encouraged!

Everybody wins!

Except for miserable people who feel the need to control the behavior of others, even when it isn’t harming anyone. And I don’t really mind those people losing.