Facts:
•    Police entered the private residence of Plaintiff in response to a reported weapons disturbance.
•    Police walked in on Defendant and another man, Tyron Garner engaging in sodomy. •    The police arrested the two petitioners under a Texas penal statute that makes it a crime
for two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. •    Petitioners exercised their right to a trial de novo, they lost the case. They then entered a
plea of nolo contendere and were fined $200 and assessed court costs of $141.25. •    The Court of Appeals rejected their constitutional arguments under Bowers. •    The US Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Issue:
•    Is the Texas statute banning two persons of the same sex to engage in intimate sexual conduct unconstitutional under the Equal Protections clause of the 14th Amendment because it does not ban the same sexual conduct between people of different sexes?
•    Is the same statute unconstitutional under the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment because it violates general liberty and privacy of two consenting adults in their own home?
•    Should Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986) be overturned?
Holding: Decision was reversed on basis of the statute is a violation to the petitioners right to exercise liberty of private conduct under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Further, a concurrence stated that the statute was in violation of the Equal Protections Clause of the 14th Amendment because the statute singled out homosexuals as a class and placed them in a situation by which a conduct closely associated with that class was deemed criminal. Bowers v. Hardwick was overturned.