Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Lawrence v. Texas

 

             At issue in this landmark Supreme Court Case, is the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of our Constitution. Does the Constitution give individuals the fundamental right to engage in sodomy in the privacy of their own home? (p.1) This paper will attempt to prove that the constitution does grant that right using the opinion obtained from the Supreme Court web site as well as recent newspaper and magazine articles.
             The 14th Amendment, which was ratified during the Reconstruction era to protect the rights of minorities, is the governing law in this case. (p.2, Foner) In a Houston, Texas apartment five years ago, local police were called to answer complaints of a gunshot. They legally entered the apartment of John Lawrence, who was engaged in sexual intercourse with another man. The two were arrested and convicted of performing a homosexual act and fined $200 according to Evan Thomas. (p2,) Texas had a statute which prohibited two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. The Texas Supreme Court upheld this conviction, leading to this ruling.
             The evolution of the 14th Amendment, according to Eric Foner in Our Living Constitution, to grant a constitutional right to privacy and to prevent the government from imposing on that right is the cornerstone to this ruling. Justice William O. Douglas, in the 1960's, related privacy to the sanctity of marriage, soon the court inferred this to the rights of individuals, allowing access to birth control to unmarried adults as well as minors. These rulings led to the landmark 1973, Roe v. Wade decision which gave women the right to have an abortion. The right to privacy suffered a blow in 1986 when Bowers v. Hardwick upheld a Georgia statute which made homosexual acts illegal. This latest verdict has far reaching implications for our society.
             David Garrow, legal scholar at Emory University and Pulitzer Prize winning writer states this case "may be one of the two most important opinions of the last 100 years.


Essays Related to Lawrence v. Texas