Lawrence v. Texas

Impact

The Lawrence v. Texas decision was greeted by gay rights activists and civil libertarians as monumental, even earthshaking. Gay rights activists predicted that no law penalizing gays and lesbians, even indirectly, such as by limiting the availability of social benefits like marriage and adoption, could stand in the wake of Lawrence. Whether that excitement was justified remained to be seen within the half decade after the decision.

Critically, the majority opinion in Lawrence did not explicitly recognize private sexual activity as a fundamental right. Indeed, one reading of the case is that a state need only offer a rational basis for regulating such activity. As such, Lawrence may not serve as the foundation for a gay rights revolution in the same way that, for example, Brown v. Board of Education did for race. That its proponents may have overestimated its impact when it was first issued proved to be the case in the legal decisions rendered in the first five years after the decision. For example, in the face of challenges based on Lawrence, courts have upheld the ban on homosexual conduct in the military and Florida's ban on adoption by same-sex couples, finding rational bases to support both.

Nevertheless, Lawrence remains an important decision, as it immediately made illegal the thirteen remaining state sodomy laws. The Court recognized a constitutional right with regard to private, consensual sexual conduct by adults. More significantly, the decision calls into question laws founded on the moral disapproval of private actions that do no harm to others. Whether rational bases beyond moral disapproval exist for laws banning a wide range of personal behavior remains to be seen.