Authors
Sheldon Bernard Lyke
Publication date
2008
Journal
Wm. & Mary J. Women & L.
Volume
15
Pages
633
Description
This Article offers an alternate reading of Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 US Supreme Court case that struck down the Texas sodomy statute that criminalized private, consensual, and adult same-sex intercourse. While most scholars discuss Lawrence as a substantive due process case and struggle to find meaning in the ambiguity of the decision's language, I propose that Lawrence is better read as an Eighth Amendment case. This Article argues that the majority opinion analyzed the constitutionality of the Texas sodomy law as it would analyze the cruelty and unusualness of a criminal law in an Eighth Amendment evolving standards of decency case. The Lawrence Court not only used objective indicators to find a US consensus against sodomy laws but was also cognizant of foreign nations that refused to criminalize sodomy. Additionally, I suggest that the Eighth Amendment and the evolving standards of decency …
Total citations
20092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320241121121111