Introduction The following case study looks at Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 559 (2001). In 1998, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested in Lawrence’s Houston home and jailed overnight after officers responding to a false weapons disturbance enter Lawrence’s home. The officers found the men engaging in a private, consensual sexual act. The two men were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. In this case it focused on the validity of a Texas statute making it a crime for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. The purpose of this case study is to determine how this case pertains to privacy in domestic relations. The case study will also discuss what the significance of this …show more content…
Is it constitutional, under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, to target gay men and lesbians for arrest? 2. Is it constitutional, under the due process clause (mediated by the implicit constitutional right to privacy), to enforce any sodomy laws in cases where the sex is private, noncommercial and involves consenting adults? (Head, 2014). The court answered no to both of these questions. The Court agreed that gay men and lesbians cannot be targeted by sodomy laws, and the court also agreed that sodomy laws as a whole are unconstitutional. Sodomy laws in general violate the constitutional right to privacy, and that lesbians and gay men cannot be targeted under criminal law as a class (Head, 2014). Sodomy laws try to control a personal relationship. A person should have the right to choose without being punished as criminals. In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the court found that the Texas statute violated the Due Process Clause. Justice Kennedy wrote, “Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the