Mile-High Club Comes Down to Earth

If the ACLU has its way, the thrill of the forbidden will disappear from air travel. In a brief today supporting Sen. Larry Craig, the freedom-loving organization argues that people who have sex in public rest rooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

Should the Idaho Senator prevail in an effort to withdraw his guilty plea of disorderly conduct during a men's room sting at the Minneapolis airport, the Mile-High Club will have to disband. What would be the point of in-flight lavatory liaisons if they were completely legal, even before takeoff?

In its brief, the ACLU asserts, "The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom."

The defenders of Larry Craig may end up expanding civil liberties but striking a blow at one of the few well-established ways of relieving the tedium of long flights.