The Supreme Meme: Lawrence v. Texas
Oct. 2nd, 2008 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrThe Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the sodomy law in Texas. Controversially, the Court did not deem it unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, which could have led to further gay rights reforms such as legalizing same sex marriage. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute, not finding a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.
Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly. The majority held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence has the effect of invalidating similar laws throughout the United States that purport to criminalize sodomy between consenting same-sex adults acting in private. It may also invalidate the application of sodomy laws to heterosexual sex based solely on morality concerns.
The case attracted much public attention, and a large number of amici curiae ("friends of the court") briefs were filed. Its outcome was celebrated by gay rights advocates, who hoped that further legal advances might result as a consequence. Conversely, it was decried by social conservatives as an example of judicial activism.
Majority by: Kennedy
Joined by: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Concurrence by: O'Connor
Dissent by: Scalia
Joined by: Rehnquist, Thomas
Dissent by: Thomas
Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the sodomy law in Texas. Controversially, the Court did not deem it unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, which could have led to further gay rights reforms such as legalizing same sex marriage. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute, not finding a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.
Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly. The majority held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence has the effect of invalidating similar laws throughout the United States that purport to criminalize sodomy between consenting same-sex adults acting in private. It may also invalidate the application of sodomy laws to heterosexual sex based solely on morality concerns.
The case attracted much public attention, and a large number of amici curiae ("friends of the court") briefs were filed. Its outcome was celebrated by gay rights advocates, who hoped that further legal advances might result as a consequence. Conversely, it was decried by social conservatives as an example of judicial activism.
Majority by: Kennedy
Joined by: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Concurrence by: O'Connor
Dissent by: Scalia
Joined by: Rehnquist, Thomas
Dissent by: Thomas
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Date: 2008-10-02 05:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-03 07:46 pm (UTC)