Lawrence v. Texas

After receiving a report about a weapons disturbance from a neighbor, a Harris County sheriff’s deputy entered the unlocked apartment of John Geddes Lawrence. There he found Lawrence and Tyron Garner having consensual sex, he arrested them both under the Texas “Homosexual Conduct” law. The law classified sodomy as a misdemeanor, a minor offense, stating that it was illegal to “engage in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex”. In November 1998, both Lawrence and Garner plead no contest, neither guilty or not guilty, to the charges against them, but chose to exercise their right to a new trial before a Texas Criminal Court. Here they asked the court to dismiss the charges as they claimed that the law violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights under the Equal Protection Clause and right to privacy. The Fourteenth Amendment states that no state shall “... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. The Texas “Homosexual Conduct” law specifically targeted one group, gay couples, with no other law on the Texas books making the same acts illegal for straight couples. The request was denied, but Lawrence and Garner continued to appeal. In November 1999, a three-judge panel of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals heard arguments about equal protection and right to privacy grounds. The court ruled in favor of the defendants in a two to one split. However, this victory was short lived as the full-court voted to reconsider and eventually to uphold the law in a seven to two split. In 2001 they petitioned the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest appellate court in Texas, which denied review. They then moved on to the Supreme Court, filing a petition in 2002. The Supreme Court later ruled in favor of Lawrence and Geddes in a six to three split.