SUPREME COURT SPECIAL
'A law branding one class of persons as criminal solely based on the State's moral disapproval of that class and the conduct
associated with that class runs contrary to the values of the Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause, under any standard of
review. I therefore concur in the Court's judgment that Texas' sodomy law banning 'deviate sexual intercourse' between consenting
adults of the same sex, but not between consenting adults of different sexes, is unconstitutional.' — U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor June 26, voting to legalize gay sex nationwide, but for a different reason than five other justices, who cited
'private conduct in the exercise of their liberty under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.'
'State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and
obscenity are ... sustainable only in light of Bowers' validation of laws based on moral choices. Every single one of these laws is
called into question by today's decision; the Court makes no effort to cabin the scope of its decision to exclude them from its holding.
... What a massive disruption of the current social order, therefore, the overruling of Bowers entails.' — U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia, dissenting from the June 26 ruling that legalized gay sex nationwide by overturning the court's anti-gay 1986 decision
in Bowers v. Hardwick.
'Today's opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-
called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral
opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.' — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
'The most significant ruling ever for lesbian and gay Americans' civil rights ... This ruling starts an entirely new chapter in our fight
for equality for lesbians and gay men.' — Lambda Legal, on the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay sex nationwide.
Lambda argued the case before the high court.
'GIVEN THE Court's ruling ... lap dancing —like prostitution, for that matter—looks like a fundamental constitutional right.' —
Conservative columnist George Will in the June 29 Chicago Sun-Times.
'WHEN sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a
personal bond that is more enduring. The liberty protected by the Constitution allows homosexual persons the right to make this
choice.' — From Kennedy's majority decision.
'I don't know what 'acting in private' means; surely, consensual sodomy, like heterosexual intercourse, is rarely performed on
stage.' — Justice Scalia.
'This has not been a good week for social conservatives. Both the affirmative action and the gay rights decision reflect a political
approach to the law that we deplore. But we all were especially surprised by the scope and breadth of today's opinion. It was a grand-
slam homer for the other side.' — Jay A. Sekulow, the legal director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal
advocacy group founded by Pat Robertson, to The New York Times June 26.
'This is probably as bad a day as the court has had on social issues since Roe v. Wade. ... It's a capitulation to the gay and
lesbian agenda whose ultimate goal is the legalization of same-sex marriages' — Rev. Jerry Falwell, in The New York Times.
'This decision will affect virtually every important legal and social question involving lesbians and gay men. For years, whenever
we have sought equality, we've been answered both in courts of law and in the court of public opinion with the claim that we are not
entitled to equality because our love makes us criminals. That argument—which has been a serious block to progress —is now a
dead letter.' — James Esseks, Litigation Director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
'We never chose to be public figures or to take on this fight. But we also never thought we could be arrested this way. We're glad
not only that this ruling lets us get on with our lives but that it opens the door for gay people all across the country to be truly equal.
We're grateful to everyone who has respected our privacy over the last few years, even if the state of Texas did not respect it that night
in 1998.' — John Geddes Lawrence, 59, who was arrested with Tyron Garner, 35, on Sept. 17, 1998, in Garner's bedroom for
violating Texas' law against 'deviate sexual intercourse.' The men's case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which used it to
overturn the U.S.' 13 remaining state laws banning gay sex, July 26.
'Until Thursday's ruling, the public view of Tyron Garner, 35, who was unemployed when arrested in 1998, and John Geddes
Lawrence, 59, a longtime medical technologist, consisted of a brief TV news clip in which they decried their arrest. ... The secrecy
served the interests of the movement, said Ray Hill, a pioneering gay-rights advocate in Houston ... . 'They are not the kind of people
that the lawyers want to comment on this case,' Hill said. 'They were never a couple. ... They are not articulate.' It was neither man's
first brush with the law. ...' — The Dallas Morning News.
'Today's Supreme Court decision ... may also remove a significant roadblock in repealing the federal sodomy statute and the
military's ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members.' — Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director C.
Dixon Osburn.
'We should be patrolling the borders, not Liberace.' — Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly expressing his strong agreement with
the privacy aspect of the Supreme Court decision striking down the nation's sodomy laws. O'Reilly then went off: 'This ruling should
not give gay militants the right to flaunt their lifestyle in the faces of children ... . All Americans should shut up about their sexual
preferences. It's nobody business, and now the Supreme Court agrees.'
'In today's landmark ruling ... six Justices understood that private consensual sexual conduct is just that—private. It is none of the
government's business, and it was unconstitutional for the State of Texas to make it a crime.' — Presidential candidate Howard Dean.
'The Court did the right thing ... . Americans don't lose their right to privacy just because they are gay or lesbian.' — Presidential
candidate Joe Lieberman.
'THURSDAY'S remarkable and historic U.S. Supreme Court decision ... is undoubtedly the greatest legal triumph for gay
Americans in all of U.S. history. ... It's consequences—for gay equality, for abortion, for assisted suicide and for marriage—will be a
landmark ingredient in American laws for many years to come.' — David J. Garrow, author of Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to
Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade, writing in the Chicago Tribune June 27.
