On June 26, 2003, the Supreme Court struck straight down a Texas legislation banning homosexual sodomy — a watershed minute for homosexual liberties. But 15 years later on, same-sex partners face another court case that aims to move straight back their liberties.
Left to right: John Lawrence, Attorney Mitchell Katine and Tyron Garner celebrate the current landmark Supreme Court ruling on a Texas sodomy legislation, within a gay pride parade in Houston on June 28, 2003. REUTERS/Carlos A. Martinez
Theirs had been a case that is unlikely.
John Lawrence and Tyron Garner weren’t in love, they weren’t a committed few plus it’s not yet determined for violating a Texas law that prohibited “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex that they were even having sex one September 1998 evening in Lawrence’s Houston apartment when a police officer burst in and arrested them.” That law ended up being hardly ever enforced, particularly in domiciles — how often, most likely, do police come in personal rooms? Into the Lawrence situation, officers joined as a result to a false report of the weapons disruption.
The factual information on that evening in many cases are called into concern; Lawrence told one interviewer which he and Garner had been seated some 15 feet aside whenever authorities arrived. Nevertheless the two pleaded “no contest” to your sodomy fee, permitting them — and their group of advocate attorneys — to challenge the legislation it self.
Finally, they won, also it had been their unlikely case that sparked a sweeping ruling through the nation’s court that is highest, one which overturned not only Texas’ ban on sodomy but 13 comparable laws and regulations around the world.
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