Lawrence v. Texas’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
433 federal appellate · 174 district · 696 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,041 later decisions (55 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Roper Superintendent Potosi Correctional Center v. Simmons (2005), Arizona v. Gant (2009)
433 federal appellate · 174 district · 696 state decisions — followed in 45 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Roe v. Wade · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · County of Sacramento v. Lewis · United States v. Salerno · Griswold v. State of Connecticut
Cited together with Romer Governor of Colorado v. Evans · Washington v. Glucksberg · Bowers v. Hardwick · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2,041 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.”
64 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[T]he fact that the governing majority in a State has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral is not a sufficient reason for upholding a law prohibiting the practice.”
62 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“preserving the traditional institution of marriage”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.