What did the US Supreme Court rule in Lawrence v. Texas?

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 US 558 (2003)

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned a Texas sodomy law, holding that private consensual sex between adults is a fundamental liberty protected by the Constitution under the doctrine of substantive due process.

Lawrence overturned the Court's earlier decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 US 186 (1986), that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law on the basis that there is no constitutional protection for sexual privacy.

In the opinion of the Court, Justice Kennedy wrote that the majority can not use the power of the state to enforce its views on the whole society through the operation of criminal law. In other Words, religious groups are not entitled to force their moral beliefs on others through legislation.

Kennedy wrote:

"The condemnation has been shaped by religious beliefs, conceptions of right and acceptable behavior, and respect for the traditional family. For many persons these are not trivial concerns but profound and deep convictions accepted as ethical and moral principles to which they aspire and which thus determine the course of their lives. These considerations do not answer the question before us, however. The issue is whether the majority may use the power of the State to enforce these views on the whole society through operation of the criminal law. "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code." Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833, 850 (1992)."

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