Top US court strikes down gay sex ban as unconstitutional
The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.
Laws forbidding homosexual sex are now rare. Those on the books are rarely enforced but underpin other kinds of discrimination, lawyers for two Texas men had argued. The men "are entitled to respect for their private lives", Kennedy wrote. "The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."
Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer agreed with Kennedy in full. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor agreed with the outcome of the case but not all of Kennedy's rationale.
Chief Justice William H Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.
"The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda," Scalia wrote for the three. He took the unusual step of reading his dissent from the bench.
"The court has taken sides in the culture war," Scalia said, adding that he has "nothing against homosexuals".
The two men at the heart of the case, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, have retreated from public view. They were each fined $200 and spent a night in jail for the misdemeanour sex charge in 1998.
The case began when a neighbour with a grudge faked a distress call to police, telling them that a man was "going crazy" in Lawrence's apartment. Police went to the apartment, and found the two men having sex.
In 1960, every US state had an anti-sodomy law. In 37 states, the statutes have been repealed by lawmakers or blocked by state courts. Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples. The other nine ban consensual sodomy for everyone.
Yesterday's ruling apparently invalidates those laws as well.
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