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365Gay.com
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Texas
Prosecutor Who Castigated Gays
In
Landmark Sodomy Case
Embroiled
In Sex Scandal
From the
Web, January 18, 2008
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HOUSTON, Texas -- The district
attorney who defended the Texas law criminalizing homosexuality before the US
Supreme Court is desperately trying to keep his job following the discovery of
e-mails containing sexually explicit videos, racist jokes and what is described
as torrid love notes to his executive secretary.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal (R) is facing a state
investigation into the emails which were discovered on his office computer.
If he is found in violation of "official misconduct'' he could be removed from
office. The office computer also contained evidence he had used it for
political purposes.
Rosenthal who is married and portrayed himself as a "family values" candidate
ended his re-election campaign last week after the sexy emails to his secretary
were discovered. His current term runs out at the end of 2008.
The e-mails were found during discovery in a federal civil rights lawsuit.
The plaintiffs in the case forced Rosenthal into a deposition where he was
required to answer questions about the e-mails under oath.
But in 2002 it was "family values" Rosenthal who argued before the US Supreme
Court that the Texas law against sodomy was upholding the moral values of the
state and was in place to protect families. The case was Lawrence v
Texas.
In his arguments he condemned adultery and homosexual acts.
"I think that this Court having determined that there are certain kinds of
conduct that it will accept and certain kinds of conduct it will not accept may
draw the line at the bedroom door of the heterosexual married couple because of
the interest that this Court has that this Nation has and certainly that the
State of Texas has for the preservation of marriage, families and the
procreation of children," Rosenthal told the justices.
"Even if you infer that various States acting through their legislative process
have repealed sodomy laws, there is no protected right to engage in
extrasexual-extramarital sexual relations, again, that can trace their roots to
history or the traditions of this nation."
In the end the Supreme Court overturned the sodomy law, releasing its opinion in
June of 2003.
In a 6 - 3 decision, the court said that states cannot make laws regarding the
private sexual conduct of Americans.
The ruling said the Texas law violates the Due Process clause of the
Constitution. Writing for the majority Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called
the ban on gay sex an "unconstitutional violation of privacy."
"[It] demeans the lives of homosexual persons," Kennedy wrote.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence
Thomas dissented.
The ruling negated not only the sodomy law in Texas, but those in a dozen other
states.
The case involve two Houston men, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner. They
pleaded no contest to breaking the sodomy law in 1998, after police broke into
Lawrence's home in search of an armed intruder and discovered the two men
engaged in intercourse.
No intruder was found and police later said the tip there was an intruder came
from an anonymous source.
Both men were arrested under the Texas sodomy statute and imprisoned overnight.
Following their conviction they were fined $200 each and ordered to pay court
costs. They appealed and fought all the way to the Supreme Court.
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