Judicial branch · Landmark case
Lawrence v. Texas
539 U.S. 558 (2003) · Opinion of the Court
What you should know
This page explains the Court’s holding in plain language.
The controlling document is the Court’s opinion.
The Court held that the Texas statute making it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct violates the Due Process Clause. The liberty protected by the Constitution allows homosexual persons the right to choose to enter upon relationships in the confines of their homes and their own private lives and still retain their dignity as free persons. Bowers v. Hardwick was overruled.
Background
Houston police entered John Lawrence’s apartment on a reported weapons disturbance and observed him and another man engaged in a sexual act. They were charged under Texas’s “Homosexual Conduct” law. The Court granted review to reconsider Bowers, which had upheld a similar Georgia statute in 1986.
Lawrence removed criminal penalties for private, consensual same-sex intimacy and became a major building block for later equality and dignity arguments, including Obergefell.
It shifted the constitutional analysis from a narrow focus on whether a right to engage in specific sexual conduct was “deeply rooted” to a broader liberty and dignity frame.
Vote and authorship
| Majority | Kennedy, J. |
|---|---|
| Join | Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer |
| Concurrence | O’Connor, J. (equal protection) |
| Dissent | Scalia, J. (joined by Rehnquist, C.J., Thomas); Thomas, J. |
The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.
Justice Kennedy · Lawrence v. Texas
How it fits in government
Judicial branch
Major substantive-due-process holding on intimate liberty.
Fourteenth Amendment
Due Process Clause protection for private consensual adult intimacy.
State & local government
Invalidates state criminal sodomy laws targeting same-sex conduct.
Official records visitors may need
Related research paths
Griswold v. Connecticut
Privacy predecessor
Obergefell v. Hodges
Later extension to marriage
Fourteenth Amendment
Due process liberty