"Ben." Lee said after Ben Meadows answered the phone.

"Hi Lee!" Ben said.  "How's Pam?" he asked.

"Thanks Ben, I'm glad you care so much about me.  ...I'm fine by the way." Lee replied.

"I didn't ask about you." Ben replied.  "How's Pam?"

"She's doing well." Lee paused.  "Well, about as well as anyone can be who has Hargraves for Early European Studies."

"Struggling?"

"I don't think so.  But you know Hargraves.  Everyone thinks he hates them and that they're failing his class.  Then in the end he has to curve all the scores since everyone is failing and not even his tenure would protect him from that."

"Is she really doing well or is she just saying that since she knows you're spying on her for me?"

"She's genuinely doing well.  Besides she doesn't think I'm spying on her.  She thinks I'm interested in her."

Lee expected a quick reply, but there was nothing but silence on the other end.  "Ben?" he said expectantly.  Nothing.  "Ben?" he said again.

"Hold on Lee, I'm trying to figure out either what I'm going to say to you or how I'm going to kill you, I'm not sure which yet."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"You're completely welcome.  So ...What's happening with your civil rights battles?" Ben asked.  "You didn't tell Pam anything about this prostitution deal did you?"

"No, she'd probably never speak to me again.  I'm slow, but I'm not completely stupid."  Lee said.  "I may have added a 3rd case though."

"Third?  I though you were dropping the prostitution stuff."

"Well, we need to talk about that one some more."

"Oh?"

"So anyway, the folks down in the house passed a bill the other day against genital mutilation."

"You're kidding me right." Ben interrupted.  "Someone's finally figured out that you take all the weird cases and they want you to fight that one now?"

"Well, not the whole thing." Lee said.  "The bill's primary aim was to protect young girls who's parents were doing stuff to them in the name of their religion.  But at the last minute they expanded it to include doing anything to the genitals of a woman.  The effect being that if an adult woman wanted to get a ... well, clit ring ...she wouldn't be legally allowed to."

"Ouch!" Ben replied.  "I don't know why anyone would want to do that anyway." He paused.  "So I bet you got a call from Emily Moore."

"How'd you know?" Lee asked confused.

"I just know these things Lee." Ben replied.  "So are you going to take it?"

"It should be a quick case and she has the money to pay for it."

"Do you agree with her?"

"One hundred percent."  Lee said.  "There is no reason whatsoever to prevent a consenting adult from getting a ring ...down there.  None.  And it's also sexist in being aimed only at women."

"What are the health issues around it?"

"When it's done legally and by someone trained to do it there aren't any.  Thousands upon thousands of women have gotten 'em with no reported problems.  After this law goes into effect and it's done illegally in a back alley with a coat hanger ...Well, you can imagine the problems that will cause."

"First of all, you already know my views on abortion.  How you can be for the murder of little babies I just don't understand Lee.  Next time you're here we need to have a long chat.  Second, you said thousands of women have these things?"

"I'm looking forward to winning another debate with you and yes, thousands of women have these things."

"Well, as much as I think it's a stupid thing to do, I'd have to agree with you from a civil rights standpoint.  So why are you still working on Amy's case?"

"Well." Lee paused.  "Let me ask you something.  ...If it's a violation of a woman's civil rights to prevent her from getting a piercing, on what basis can we say that she can't sell her services as long as all parties are consenting adults and nobody except the involved parties are impacted?"

"Well, for one thing, you haven't won the piercing case yet.  But assuming that you will, the state has a right to regulate morals and prostitution is morally reprehensive to a lot of people."

"So is sodomy."  Lee replied quickly

"There's no commerce involved in the Texas case."

Lee was a little surprised how quickly Ben replied and knew exactly what he was referring to.  "And that has what to do with it?"

"Doesn't the government have a right to regulate commerce for the betterment of society?"

"Regulate it." Lee said.  "Where it causes harm.  Not prevent it.  Government has a right, within reason, to limit where a certain type of business may operate, require that certain rules are followed, like for health or accounting, and so on.  ...But." He exclaimed, "The regulations can't just be willy-nilly for no reason.  There has to be a valid reason behind what they do.  Let's take the simplest case." Lee went on.  "A 24 year old woman places an ad on the Internet offering her services for $400 an hour.  I call her up, she comes to my place, I pay her for her services, she goes home, everyone's happy.  ...Now the question, if prostitution were legal, who has been harmed in this scenario?  Nobody, right?

"No." Ben chimed in.  "She, you, and society have all been harmed."

"Ah, can you explain please."

"You can't tell me that this gal can have sex with a bunch of different guys that she has no relationship with and not be harmed.  You know better than that.  We've discussed it before."

"A lot of women in this industry are harmed by it, but many are not.  And, of the ones who are, a lot of the harm is done by the illegality more than by anything else."  Lee said, suddenly realizing that he was beginning to sound like Amy.  "In fact, some of the gals will tell you that they like this better than doing it with some guy they meet in a bar.  And in any case, if the industry is brought out into the open it will be a lot easier for everyone involved to get advice and counseling.  Keeping it illegal doesn't reduce the number of people getting hurt, but decriminalizing it might."

"OK, I won't argue with you on that." Ben said.

Lee hung on the phone quietly without saying anything.  A light had suddenly gone off in his head.  It wasn't a choice between a good alternative and a bad one.  Neither one was necessarily good.  It was a choice between two relatively undesirable options.  The current one that attempted to outlaw prostitution, but was ineffective and created a host of problematic outcomes?  Or the one that admitted that it would realistically exist in society no matter what and focused on reducing real problems?

Con't