<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) </Td> </Tr> <P> Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark civil rights case by the United States Supreme Court . The Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas in a 6--3 decision and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states, making same - sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory . The Court, with a five - justice majority, overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy . </P> <P> Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly . The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the 14th Amendment . Lawrence invalidated similar laws throughout the United States that criminalized sodomy between consenting adults acting in private, whatever the sex of the participants . </P>

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