![]() ![]() During this same period, of the 112,682 children born to girls from 15 to 17 years of age, 51 percent were illegitimate. Between 19, 83.6 percent of the 4,860 children born in California to girls under 15 years of age were illegitimate. Pregnancies among unwed teenage girls constitute a major contemporary human problem the dimensions of which may be illustrated by a few current statistics. Accordingly, the Legislature is amply justified in retaining its historic statutory rape law because of the potentially devastating social and economic results which may follow its violation. This changeless physical law, coupled with the tragic human costs of illegitimate teenage pregnancies, generates a compelling and demonstrable state interest in minimizing both the number of such pregnancies and their disastrous consequences. Unlike the sex-based classification which we invalidated in Sail'er Inn, and which reflected overbroad social generalizations regarding the appropriate roles of males and females, the law herein challenged is supported not by mere social convention but by the immutable physiological fact that it is the female exclusively who can become pregnant. However, this obviously discriminatory classification scheme is readily justified by an important state interest. There can be no doubt that section 261.5 discriminates on the basis of sex because only females may be victims, and only males may violate the section. Under the strict scrutiny standard routinely applied when the classification is deemed suspect, we imposed upon the state the burden of establishing not only that the state has a compelling interest which justifies the law but that those distinctions drawn by the law are necessary to further the statute's purpose. Specifically, we there invalidated a statute which prohibited women from tending bar except in certain limited circumstances. ![]() 3d 1, we considered the issue of suspect classifications based upon sex. ) For reasons developed below we reject this contention. Following his unsuccessful motion to set aside the information under section 995, he seeks from us a writ of prohibition to compel the respondent superior court to dismiss the information on the ground that section 261.5 violates the equal protection clauses of both the United States and California Constitutions, because only females are protected by the statute and only males may be prosecuted under it. (a)), he was charged by information with a felony violation of section 261.5. After the juvenile court found that defendant was not a fit and proper subject to be dealt with under the juvenile court law (Welf. There was some evidence that the defendant struck Sharon twice before she engaged in the act. Defendant, 17 1/2 years old, and Sharon, 16, engaged in sexual intercourse after an amorous interlude on a park bench. The factual and procedural aspects of the case are briefly described. We consider the constitutionality of Penal Code section 261.5 (all statutory references are to that code unless otherwise cited), which defines the offense of "unlawful sexual intercourse" as "an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female not the wife of the perpetrator, where the female is under the age of 18 years." The crime was formerly called "statutory rape." We will conclude that while this section does classify both victims and offenders by sex, there is a compelling state interest which justifies the classifications, thus meeting the equal protection requirements of both federal and state Constitutions. Kriegler, Deputy Attorneys General, for Real Party in Interest. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, S. Younger and George Deukmejian, Attorneys General, Jack R. Young, Deputy Public Defender, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Petitioner.Įvelle J. Miller, Public Defender (Sonoma), and Lynn S. Separate dissenting opinion by Mosk, J., with Tobriner and Newman, JJ., concurring.) (Opinion by Richardson, J., with Bird, C. ![]() THE SUPERIOR COURT OF SONOMA COUNTY, Respondent THE PEOPLE, Real Party in Interest
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