Doe v. Hood

Carlton W. Reeves, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

In 1978, Arthur Doe1 pleaded guilty to violating Mississippi's "Unnatural Intercourse" law. Miss. Code Ann. § 97-29-59. The statute prohibits oral and anal sex, or *751what is also known as sodomy. As a result of his conviction, Doe was later required to register as a sex offender.

In Lawrence v. Texas , 539 U.S. 558, 123 S.Ct. 2472, 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003), the Supreme Court held that a Texas statute, criminalizing same-sex sodomy, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That decision overruled Bowers v. Hardwick , 478 U.S. 186,…