explaining that Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972), which "invalidated a law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried persons[,]... was decided under the Equal Protection Clause, but with respect to unmarried persons, the Court went on to state the fundamental proposition that the law impaired the exercise of their personal rights" (citation omitted); and, further, stating that "[e]quality of treatment and the due process right to demand respect for conduct protected by the substantive guarantee of liberty are linked in important respects"
How later courts described this case
- explaining that Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972), which "invalidated a law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried persons[,]... was decided under the Equal Protection Clause, but with respect to unmarried persons, the Court went on to state the fundamental proposition that the law impaired the exercise of their personal rights" (citation omitted); and, further, stating that "[e]quality of treatment and the due process right to demand respect for conduct protected by the substantive guarantee of liberty are linked in important respects"
- concluding that a Texas statute making it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct was unconstitutional as applied to two men who had engaged in a consensual act of sodomy in the privacy of their home because, among other things, such laws touch upon "the most private human conduct, sexual behavior, and in the most private of places, the home"
- stating that constitutional protections are provided to individuals making personal decisions relating to such matters as procreation and child-rearing because the Constitution demands respect for the autonomy of the person making these decisions and that “[pjersons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do”
- holding that while the Due Process Clause of the Constitution protects the right of two individuals of the same sex to engage in mutually consensual private sexual conduct, the case did “not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Later courts went against this
Limited by Sintay v. Martel, 769 F. Supp. 2d 1197 (2010)
However, the Supreme Court specifically limited its holding in Lawrence to consenting adults.
Distinguished
Distinguished by Cochran v. State, 2012 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 45 (2012)
We conclude, as did the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bach, that Lawrence is inapplicable to the present situation and that the legislative choice to proscribe the possession of a visual depiction of a person under the age of 17 years engaged in sexual conduct is rationally related to the State’s legitimate interest in protecting children and enforcing child-pornography laws.
Distinguished by State v. Rung, 278 Neb. 855 (2009)
However, we have held that "when a law regulates sexual conduct involving a minor, Lawrence is inapplicable.
Distinguished by Thomas Varkonyi v. State (2008)
Further, we find that Lawrence is inapplicable to the instant case
Distinguished by In re R.L.C., 361 N.C. 287 (2007)
” Id. However, Lawrence is distinguishable from the instant case by the very language of Lawrence.
The opinion
Justice Thomas,
dissenting.
I join Justice Scalia’s dissenting opinion. I write separately to note that the law before the Court today “is . . . uncommonly silly.” Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479, 527 (1965) (Stewart, J., dissenting). If I were a member of the Texas Legislature, I would vote to repeal it. Punishing someone for expressing his sexual preference through noncommercial consensual conduct with another adult does not appear to be a worthy way to expend valuable law enforcement resources.
Notwithstanding this, I recognize that as a Member of this Court I am not empowered to help petitioners and others similarly situated. My duty, rather, is to “decide cases ‘agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States.’” Id., at 530 . And, just like Justice Stewart, I “can find [neither in the Bill of Rights nor any other part of the *606 Constitution a] general right of privacy,” ibid., or as the Court terms it today, the “liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions,” ante, at 562.