Thursday, March 27, 2003

Supremes Wake Up And Smell The Cawfee

Apparently the argument went well for the good guys in Wednesday's Supreme Court argument in Lawrence vs Texas.
Here is an eyewitness account from someone who attended the oral argument
Also, Here is the NYT story on the case:


Supreme Court Seems Set to Reverse a Sodomy Law
By LINDA GREENHOUSE


WSHINGTON, March 26 — A majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready today to overturn a Texas "homosexual conduct" law that criminalizes sexual practices between same-sex couples that are lawful in the state when performed by a man and a woman.

Texas is one of four states to make such a distinction, and one of 13 with criminal sodomy laws still on their books. It appeared from the argument today, on behalf of two Houston men who were prosecuted after the police found them having sex in a private apartment, that the court would follow a path of least resistance and invoke the constitutional guarantee of equal protection to strike down the Texas law.

A decision along those lines would sidestep the more fundamental question of the constitutional status of gay rights. But the fact that such a moment had arrived in a court that only 17 years ago dismissed as "facetious" the notion that the constitutional right to privacy extended to the private sexual choices made by gay men and lesbians invested the courtroom with an air of drama that the lopsided and unsuspenseful argument itself could not dispel.