Mclaughlin v. Florida (1964) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and McLaughlin v. Florida (1964)

While McLaughlin v. Florida (1964) is often hailed as a significant case with regard to the constitutional status of interracial intimacy - particularly non-marital; many regard Lawrence v. Texas (2003) an important case as far as same-sex marriages are concerned. This text reviews both cases.

In the case of Lawrence v. Texas (2003), law enforcement officers were responding to a private residence disturbance when they made an unexpected entry into Lawrence's apartment and found him engaging in a sexual act with another man. The said act was consensual and both individuals were past the age of the majority. Lawrence and his partner (by the name Garner) were promptly arrested. It is important to note that at the time, Texas laws forbade deviate sexual intercourse, such as that between two individuals of the same gender. Specifically, "Texas law banned homosexual sodomy…" (Schmalleger and Hall, 2014, p. 377).

It was on the strength of these laws that both Lawrence and Garner were not only arrested, but also convicted. The key issue in this case was whether on not liberty (under the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause) was limited by the Texas statute banning specific acts of a sexual nature. The U.S. supreme Court, in the words of Schmalleger and Hall (2014, p. 377), "struck down the Texas same-sex sodomy law on due-process grounds and swept aside its earlier ruling in Bowers."

In the case of McLaughlin v. Florida (1964), Connie Hofman and Dewey McLaughlin were arrested for contravening Florida laws that banned interracial cohabitation. Specifically, the statute prohibited the habitual occupation of the same room at night by an interracial couple (where one person was black and the other white) that wasn't married. Hofman, a white lady, and McLaughlin, a black man, were living together and had a romantic relationship, despite having no formal proof of marriage. Both were not only convicted, but also fined and imprisoned for flouting or contravening the statute.

It is important to note that this particular law did not apply to couples that came from other racial combinations/groups, except where one individual was black and the other white. Further, Florida was not the only state that had in place discriminative anti-miscegenation laws. Other states as well, particularly those in the southern part of the country, had similar laws. In the end, after the case found its way to the Supreme Court, it was ruled that the move to punish interracial marriages was in contravention of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.