In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court of the United States took a striking step toward expanding civil liberties in the United States. This landmark case revolved around the criminalization of same-sex relations.
The case began after a pair of police officers entered a private home after receiving an anonymous phone call about a private adult activity. What they found were two adult men engaging in consensual sexual relations. Both men were arrested and charged under a Texas law making sexual relations between two persons of the same sex a crime. The two men appealed their conviction, and the case ultimately wound its way to the Supreme Court.
In a landmark 6-3 decision, the Court overturned the Texas Law. The decision declared that such laws violated the due process rights guaranteed to all citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment. It held that the constitution gave the right to privacy to all citizens, and that this privacy extended to consensual sexual activity between adults.
The Supreme Court’s decision delivered a seismic jolt to traditional understandings of privacy in the United States. While the decision applied to same-sex activity explicitly, the broader implications of the decision affected all citizens. In a single ruling, the Supreme Court solidified the right to privacy for all adults engaging in consensual sexual activity. No longer could laws single out same-sex relationships for criminalization.
The seminal decision in the Lawrence v. Texas case has made it much more difficult for any state in the United States to pass laws that criminalize private, consensual adult sexual activity. This decision serves as a powerful precedent that will reverberate through the courts for years to come as the fight for expanded civil liberties continues in the United States.