ARTICLE

Abstract

When the U.S. Supreme Court, in Lawrence v. Texas, struck down a law criminalizing homosexual sodomy, its decision was seen by the press and other political observers as a major contribution to American public life. The Court’s opinion also caught the attention of commentators on constitutional law, for it drew on the theme of equal citizenship to justify a decision resting on substantive due process. This Article points out that egalitarian values have advanced the development of substantive due process from its beginning a century ago. The theme of equal liberties is visible in the Lochner era, in the incorporation of the Bill of Rights in the Fourteenth Amendment, and in the modern expansion of personal constitutional freedoms.

* David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law.