Opinion on overturning Lawrence v. Texas U.S. 2023| ��ƽ��

Opinion on the Supreme Court overturning its Lawrence v. Texas decision that protects the right to same-sex sexual activity in the United States in 2023

Characteristic	Share of responents
States should be allowed to punish people for engaging in homosexual conduct	31%
States should NOT be allowed to punish people for engaging in homosexual conduct	69%

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

In cooperation with

Release date

April 2023

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

April 5 to 11, 2023

Number of respondents

2,029 respondents

Age group

18 years and older

Special properties

U.S. adults

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

Original question: The Court’s 2003 ruling in a case called Lawrence v. Texas declared that states punishing people for engaging in homosexual conduct was unconstitutional. Some people think that the Court should overrule Lawrence and allow states to punish people for engaging in homosexual conduct. Other people think that Lawrence should be upheld, prohibiting states from doing this. What do you think?

Citation formats

In April 2023, 31 percent of polled U.S. adults were in favor of overturning the United States Supreme Court case that protects the right of individuals to engage in same-sex activity, agreeing that states should be allowed to punish people for engaging in homosexual conduct.

Background

Lawrence v. Texas was a 2003 Supreme Court Case which ruled that criminal punishment for those who commit sodomy are unconstitutional. The case came before the court after John Geddes Lawrence Jr. was arrested alongside Tyron Garner in Harris County, Texas in 1998. The two men were found by Sheriff’s deputies engaging in sexual intercourse and were charged with a misdemeanor under Texas’ anti-sodomy law. After multiple appeals, the case made its way to the Supreme Court. The Texas sodomy law was struck down in a 6-3 decision, invalidating sodomy laws in 13 other states, and making same-sex sexual activity legal across the entirety of the U.S. and its territories. The three dissenting Justices were Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and Clarence Thomas. The six Justices in the majority entrenched its ruling in the same right to privacy granted by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is the same legal principle that upheld other cases such as Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Obergefell v. Hodges.

A change of tone

Despite praise for the ruling from LGBT+ rights activists, the Lawrence ruling, and others may yet face challenges. In response to the June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization - the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade - Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Court should reconsider all of the its substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell, and that the Court has a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents. This ruling as well as decisions on gun rights and the Environmental Protection Agency has led to strong feelings of disapproval towards the Court from the American public.