Stanford law professor Michele Dauber thought pushing for changes to the state’s spousal rape laws would be a no-brainer.
After all, this is 2021. In so-called progressive California. Why would anybody support old-fashioned laws distinguishing spousal rape from rape, making the latter subject to far more serious consequences?
The legislature would surely rubber-stamp it and quickly move on. Nope. It can’t even get a hearing.
“I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked,” said Dauber, best known for leading the successful 2018 recall of Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky after he let Stanford swimmer Brock Turner off lightly in a notorious rape case.
Kolieka Seigle, president of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women, teamed up with Dauber and other women’s groups and progressive district attorneys to push for this simple change. And she’s livid it’s stuck.
“It’s ridiculous. There should be no opposition,” Seigle said. “Whoever commits rape, against a spouse or not, should have parity in punishment. That’s all we’re asking for.
“In liberal California, people think we’re so progressive,” she continued. “We’re not!”
Spousal rape is still treated as rape as far as prosecution goes. While spousal rape is a separate offense, it carries the same penalty. Beyond that, California law holds that marriage doesn’t constitute consent.
What exactly is this lady clamoring for? Did she bother to read the statutes before she started harping about it, or is she just screaming for attention?