Texas’s law making it a crime for people of the same sex to engage in certain sexual acts violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that citizens’ right “to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention.”
The case touched on constitutional principles including equality, liberty, and majority rule versus minority rights, and civic values including justice and respect.
For in-depth explorations of personal liberty cases like Griswold v. Connecticut, Roe v. Wade, and Lawrence v. Texas, check out Supreme Court DBQs: Exploring the Cases that Changed History.