ABSTRACT
In Lawrence v. Texas, 539 US 558, a gay- rights case, the US Supreme Court overruled Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 US 186. The Court reversed convictions based on laws making private same-sex sodomy illegal, holding that such laws violated the rights and liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Houston police responded to a reported weapons disturbance in John Lawrence's apartment but instead found Lawrence and his homosexual partner engaged in sodomy, a misdemeanor, and arrested them. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that six-three majority opinion, joined by the same five justices to vote against Texas in Lawrence. He admitted Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's equal protection logic had merit against Texas and the other three states that criminalized homosexual sodomy. He concluded it might be too narrow to stop more states from criminalizing partner-neutral sodomy.
