Constitutional Law II #9: Lawrence v. Texas Tuesday, Feb 28 2006
1L and Constitutional Law and Constitutional Law II and Neil Wehneman and University of Cincinnati College of Law 4:54 am
Can a state outlaw sodomy for the sole reason of “morality”? The Supreme Court’s answer, via Justice Kennedy, is no. Moral disapproval alone cannot suffice to restrict a liberty interest.
Bowers v. Hardwick
Lawrence v. Texas
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Neil,
I love the podcasts. I am in an undergraduate course in jurisprudence at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. This week, we were assigned to read the Bowers and Lawrence decisions. Your podcast helped me to understand the finer points of these issues. I wonder if you still (after a year) think the equal protection argument suffices.
bward,
I still believe the equal protection argument is the most persuasive. However, I’m not opposed to there also being a substantive due process argument, ala Kennedy’s opinion. A statute can be illegal for multiple reasons, after all.
I guess what I don’t like about Kennedy’s opinion is the wishy-washiness of it. Perhaps he needed to water it down to get the necessary votes. But I would still push for an equal protection argument that grants intermediate scrutiny as gender discrimination.
- Neil