Federal probation policy forbids felons on parole from associating in any way with other felons unless they are spouses or blood relatives. That meant, for the duration of their parole, no overnights, no visits, no phone calls, no letters, no e-mails.
No way, they said. While Mangini and Roberts acknowledge that their criminal background hardly makes them poster boys for a cause, their predicament prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to take up their case. On July 31, in a legal victory that could set an important precedent in constitutional law for same-sex couples, Judge Marvin Katz of U.S. District Court in Philadelphia ruled that the two men have the same right to associate during their probation as do heterosexual married couples.
"It's fair to say we're not role models, but that doesn't mean we should have less rights than anybody else," Mangini said in the couple's first interview. "We weren't going to take it without a fight."
Leslie Cooper of the ACLU, a co-counsel in the case, said the ruling could have significance equal with the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws.
"It's important that the court recognizes that gay couples are entitled to the same protection of their relationships as heterosexual couples enjoy," said Cooper, staff attorney for the ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and AIDS Project.
The government had argued that Mangini and Roberts should be able to resume their relationship, but gradually and under supervision, to avoid "whatever temptations and mistakes" had led to their criminal acts. Under the U.S. attorney's plan, the couple would have been limited to one 12-hour visit and two phone calls per week for at least six months. At that point, they could have requested more contact.
