3 - Commentary on Reynolds v. McNichols

Summary

Reynolds v. McNichols is a 1973 opinion from the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the plaintiff was never convicted of prostitution or diagosed with an infection, she was held, examined, and involuntarily treated for sexually transmitted infections under the city of Denver’s “hold and treat” ordinance. The Tenth Circuit rejected her due process and equal protection challenges to the ordinance. In her feminist rewrite, Professor Wendy Parmet questions the health officials’ assumptions that female sex workers are “the primary source of venereal disease” and that the city can only protect the public’s health by forcibly treating them. She holds that the application of the ordinance to the plaintiff was discriminatory and that, under the circumstances, the defendants’ forced treatment of the plaintiff violated her right to privacy and their failure to obtain a warrant before forcing her to submit to a medical examination or remain in detention constituted an unreasonable search. In her commentary, Professor Aziza Ahmed situates the case in terms of historical responses to sex work under the banner of public health.