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Gets Filed with U.S. Supreme Court Dozens of Respected & Diverse Groups Lending Their Support 'Overturn Anti-Gay Texas Law!' Lambda Legal Asks 9 Justices Lambda Legal
"This is a tremendously important case for gay people and for everyone who believes in basic freedoms. These laws are an affront to equality, invade the most private sphere of adult life, and harm gay people in many ways," said Ruth Harlow, Legal Director at Lambda Legal and the lead attorney in the case. "The state should not have the power to go into the bedrooms of consenting adults in the middle of the night and arrest them," Harlow said. "But that's only the beginning of the damage done by this law and others like it around the country. These laws are widely used to justify discrimination against gay people in everyday life; they're invoked in denying employment to gay people, in refusing custody or visitation for gay parents, and even in intimidating gay people out of exercising their free speech rights." In addition to Texas, three states - Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma-- still have consensual sodomy laws that apply only to gay people. Nine states - Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Utah - and Puerto Rico still have consensual sodomy laws that apply to straight and gay adults, but are invoked almost exclusively against lesbians and gay men in everyday life. These laws typically ban oral and anal sex with penalties that range from fines to 10 years in prison. Organizations in Texas and all of the other states with sodomy laws are among the scores of groups that filed more than a dozen friend-of-the-court briefs Thursday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Texas's law. Those groups include:
"Some of the most diverse and respected voices in this country are lining up to tell the Supreme Court that these laws are contrary to American values," Harlow said. "Conservative groups are coming forward to say that the government has no business in people's bedrooms. Mainstream civil rights organizations are speaking out about the inequalities and blatant discrimination these laws create. And our nation's leading health advocates are unequivocally saying that these laws don't serve any public interest." The state of Texas will file its reply to Lambda Legal's brief by February 18, which is also the deadline for any organizations to file briefs in support of the Texas law. The case is not yet scheduled for arguments, which will take place this Spring. Lambda Legal attorneys Ruth Harlow, Patricia Logue and Susan Sommer, along with Brian Chase in Lambda Legal's Dallas office, are litigating the case. William M. Hohengarten, Paul M. Smith, and Daniel Mach from Jenner & Block, LLC in Washington, D.C., and Mitchell Katine from Williams, Birnberg & Andersen, L.L.P. in Houston, are Lambda Legal's cooperating attorneys on the case. |
Tyron Garner and John Lawrence are appealing their conviction on Texas sodomy charges. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case that could overturn sodomy laws throughout the country.