Case Brief Lawrence Vs Texas

Lawrence v. Texas: 539 U.S. 558
Facts of the case:
In a private residence community, the Houston police had gotten a call about a weapons disturbance in the apartment of John Lawrence. John Lawrence was having drinks with two other people, who were Robert Eubanks and Tyron Garner, a few hours before the weapons disturbance was reported. Robert Eubanks, jealous of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner flirting with one another, decided to get a soda at a vending machine and called the police saying “a black male going crazy with a gun” was in the apartment (The New Yorker). The Houston police arrived at 11 pm to the unlocked apartment and entered to find John Lawrence and Tyron Garner having consensual intercourse. In 1973, the Texas Penal Code had

Once at the Texas Criminal Court, Lawrence and Garner’s attorney from Lambda Legal stated that the law adopted by the Texas Penal Code was going against the Fourteenth Amendment which guaranteed equal protection because it allowed sodomy between heterosexual couples but not homosexual couples. The attorney also argued that the Supreme Court’s decision on Bowers v. Hardwick, which claimed that no privacy protection between same-gendered couples having consensual sex was needed, was wrongly decided. The judge of the Texas Criminal Court decided to fine both males $200 because they pleaded “no contest” and the judge also denied dismissal of the defenses’ motion. Lawrence and Garner then took it up to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals who found that the Texas law was unconstitutional in a 2-1 vote. The Court of Appeals then decided to review the case en banc without hearing any oral arguments and did not agree with the Fourteenth Court of Appeals claiming that the law was indeed constitutional in a 7-2 vote. The Lambda Legal attorney asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest appellate court, to consider their case but sadly the Court denied to review it. After being denied, the attorney went to the Supreme Court and asked if they could consider reviewing their case (this is known

Hardwick case. This case questioned whether the Constitution allowed consensual sodomy between homosexuals as a fundamental right which then would make it illegal for States to write a law criminalizing what happens in the private house of gay couples. In a 5-4 vote, the Justices allowed States to write laws that criminalized consensual intercourse between same-sex couples because they did not find in the Constitution protection for sexual acts. Lawrence v. Texas overruled the Supreme Court’s decision in 1985 by saying Bowers v. Hardwick was