State v. Elmore

As the law governing the permissible limits of legal distinctions between men and women evolves, there is a danger that anything we say today will be found amusing by future generations because of a changed social and legal climate. The twenty-year-old language in State v. Hunter, 208 Or 282, 286-88, 300 P2d 455 (1956), is already sadly dated. The same could be said about the six-year-old language in State v. Bearcub, 1 Or App 579, 581-82, 465 P2d 252 (1970), repeated again today.

The statutory scheme here attacked is, frankly, a hangover from an earlier era when double standards applying to…