WASHINGTON (voa) – In a major victory for homosexual rights activists, the Supreme Court has struck down a ban on sodomy between consenting adults.
Thursday’s 6-3 ruling invalidated a Texas law against what the state termed “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.” The United States’ high court ruled the Texas law violates constitutional rights to privacy.
Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Texas law demeans the lives of homosexual persons.
The case involved John Geddes Lawrence and Tryon Garner. In 1998, police officers entered Lawrence’s apartment in Houston, Texas while investigating what turned out to be a false report filed by a neighbor of a disturbance with a gun. The officers found the two men engaged in anal sex.
Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Garner were arrested and charged with violating the Texas sodomy law. They pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges and each were fined $200. The two men then challenged the law’s constitutionality. The court’s three most conservative members, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented. Justice Antonin Scalia said the court had taken sides in the culture war – in his words “signing on to the so-called homosexual agenda”.
Supporters of the Texas law say it is in keeping with the state’s interest in protecting marriage and morality.
Civil rights activists viewed the case as a test of a state’s ability to regulate what goes on in the bedroom between consenting adults. Thirteen U.S. states still have sodomy laws on the books.
The ruling came down on the last day of the court’s term this session.
