JUST as the O.J. trial was a public demonstration of the laws of evidence and procedure in criminal cases, so Paula Jones and her lawyers have provided the American public with an object lesson in the awesome scope and power of our current sexual-harassment laws. One woman’s unsupported allegations are grounds for hauling even the President of the United States into a deposition where he can be forced to testify under oath about sexual encounters with former lovers, the size and shape of his penis, his shopping habits, and what books he gives as gifts.
It was not always so. As one pundit after another has reminded us, President Kennedy’s escapades remained private, and the country was arguably better for it. Kennedy died in 1963, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964; before that there were no civil Laws which pretended to referee the timeless scrimmage between men and women for power, money, sex, and influence—a contest which was fought by individuals in the marketplace and in the bedroom, until group rights and identity politics came into fashion.
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