 The approach suggests a different limit of the law: that laws must in some sense be based on public reasons, not reasons harvested from, or based on, comprehensive moral, ethical or religious theories. We saw above that while Devlin, Moore and Hart all supported the decriminalization of gay sex, they did so on very different understandings. Devlin did not rule out circumstances, admittedly extreme ones, in which criminalization might be justifiable in virtue of the intensity and comprehensiveness of the beliefs of ordinary persons in a society. Moore and Hart, by contrast, did implicitly rule out criminalization in such circumstances. Moore because the moral truth of the matter is highly pertinent, indeed decisive—there being nothing morally wrong with gay sex—Hart, despite assuming the moral truth of the matter to be irrelevant—gay sex is not harmful, so the conclusion goes through whether such conduct is wrongful or not. Rawls for his part would no doubt agree with all three on the correctness of decriminalization. But he would seek to exclude, as did Hart and Devlin, any Moore-style or perfectionist appeal to a comprehensive moral understanding to determine the issue. Devlin for his part would have had Moore down as one of the “moral rationalists” whose views he wanted side-lined in favour of the reasonable citizen.