LANSING, MI -- Internet, please take note.

Yes, it's technically illegal under state law to have anal or oral sex in Michigan, but that antiquated law is not enforced and is nullified by federal law to the contrary.

Nonetheless, the blogosphere rediscovered that archaic bit of status quo this week after old language in a new bill targeted at animal abusers prompted widespread social media outrage at the Michigan legislature for trying to ban certain kinds of nookie when they should be figuring out how to help the people of Flint get safe drinking water.

Senate Bill 219, sponsored by Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, is part of a bipartisan bill package called "Logan's Law," which is meant to keep animal abusers from being able to adopt pets by giving Michigan shelters access to a database called the Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT).

The legislature has been trying to pass "Logan's Law" -- so named for a husky that was tortured and killed with acid -- for several years. A proposed statewide abuser registry that was considered too unwieldy tripped up earlier versions.

State of Michigan capitol dome.

Coupled with S.B. 220, the two-bill package passed the Senate on Jan. 28 by a vote of 37 to 1 and was referred to the House judiciary committee.

Unfortunately, because S.B. 219 amends the existing state penal code, it includes antiquated, non-enforced language that says any person committing "the abominable and detestable crime against nature either with mankind or with any animal" could be convicted of a felony punishable by 15 years in prison.

The bill passed the Senate with that language, which has been in the Logan's Law bill for several years now because Michigan is one of more than a dozen states with a sodomy ban still on the books, an archaic 85-year-old law that's part of the state penal code, Act 328 of 1931.

The Internet soon took notice. On Feb. 5, the New Civil Rights Movement blog wrote a piece headlined "Michigan Senate Passes Bill Saying Sodomy Is A Felony Punishable By 15 Years in Prison," which sparked a flurry of Facebook shares, tweets, aggregations and repackaged stories about lawmakers reaffirming an unconstitutional ban on anal sex.

"It's outrageous stuff," said Jones. "Totally false."

Although Michigan does technically outlaw sodomy, it's a meaningless restriction. Federal law trumps state law and in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed nationwide sodomy laws that criminalized consensual homosexual sex when deciding the case Lawrence v. Texas.

Just last year, the high court followed that up by ruling the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

"Many of these old laws are not removed, left on the books and are meaningless," said Jones. "Judges and attorneys know they are meaningless. The police know you can't enforce a ban on consensual adult sodomy."

So, why is the ban still on the books? Basically, because no lawmaker thus far has the courage to try and remove the word "with mankind" from the law.

"If you were to take the word 'mankind' out of Michigan sodomy laws, that would affect sodomy as a rape, sodomy on children," Jones said. "I'm certainly not about to legalize pedophilia."

Getting into the weeds on unenforceable sodomy language threatens a bill that lawmakers have been pushing for several years, said Jones. Striking arcane laws from the books is not the task at hand right now.

"If there's some legislator that wants to take a dozen unconstitutional Michigan laws and put up a bill to try and get them removed, that's fine. We'll debate it and see what happens," he said. "I'm not going to let them hijack a bill protecting animals because they are trying to score political points."

The House has not yet scheduled a hearing on S.B. 219. Jones said the last effort to enact the Logan's Law bills passed the House, but stalled in the Senate.

"I suspect the House will easily pass them again."

Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Macomb County, said the House could strip the sodomy language from the bill during the legislative process, which he'd like to see, although he acknowledged amending that section of penal code might be more complicated than it seems at first blush.

Bieda, who is sponsoring S.B. 220, said "we're trying to focus on this Logan's Law issue, but that doesn't mean we couldn't take care of the other issue as well."

Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, said the legislature could have avoided this distraction by cleaning up the outdated provision in penal code 13 years ago. He said there's support in the House for tackling animal abuse and the outdated sodomy language at the same time.

"I hope the judiciary committee sends the full House a good bill to vote on."

Garret Ellison covers business, environment & the Great Lakes for MLive Media Group. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram