Here's a legal fact that might make you do a double-take: until June 26, 2003, oral sex between consenting adults was technically a crime in 14 American states. We're not talking about the 1800s—this was the era of camera phones and broadband internet.

The Laws That Time Forgot

These weren't dusty statutes that prosecutors ignored. Sodomy laws—which typically banned oral and anal sex—were actively enforced well into the modern era. The penalties ranged from fines to actual prison time, with some states classifying violations as felonies.

The states clinging to these laws in 2003 included Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, among others. Some applied only to same-sex couples, while others made no distinction—technically criminalizing married heterosexual couples in their own bedrooms.

The Case That Changed Everything

Everything shifted because of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, two men arrested in Houston after police entered Lawrence's apartment on a false weapons report and found them having sex. They were charged under Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law and fined $200 each.

Rather than quietly pay up, they fought back. The case climbed all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in their favor. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the Constitution protects intimate consensual conduct as part of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause.

What the Ruling Actually Did

The Lawrence v. Texas decision didn't just strike down Texas's law—it invalidated sodomy laws in all 14 states that still had them:

Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri
Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina
Utah, Virginia, Michigan

The ruling also overturned Bowers v. Hardwick, a 1986 decision that had upheld Georgia's sodomy law just 17 years earlier. The Court essentially admitted its previous ruling was wrong.

The Bizarre Enforcement History

These laws created absurd situations over the years. People were arrested for private, consensual acts in their own homes. The laws were disproportionately used against LGBTQ+ individuals, even when written to apply to everyone.

Some states kept their sodomy laws on the books even after Lawrence made them unenforceable. As of 2023, more than a dozen states technically still have these unconstitutional statutes in their legal codes—zombie laws that can't be enforced but haven't been formally repealed.

Why It Matters

The Lawrence decision did more than legalize specific acts. Legal scholars consider it foundational to later rulings on marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights. The case established that the government cannot criminalize private intimate conduct between consenting adults simply because a majority finds it immoral.

So the next time someone says the early 2000s feel like ancient history, remind them: that's the decade America finally decided what consenting adults do in private isn't the government's business.

Related Tags