As the Manhattan Declaration points out, the biggest threat to religious freedom comes from those who want to redefine marriage and impose a particular view of sexual morality on all of us.

As the ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which overturned California’s Proposition 8, makes its way through the appeals process, one of the big questions concerns the impact of another case: Lawrence v. Texas. That 2003 Supreme Court decision overturned the Texas law making sodomy a criminal offense.

Judge Vaughn Walker clearly thinks that the line between Lawrence and his ruling is clear. His opinion not only cited Lawrence – it was, as many commentators have noted, practically written for an audience of one: Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of the Lawrence decision, and the likely swing-vote on the Supreme Court.

But is the link as clear as Walker and his supporters say it is? No. Especially when you take public attitudes into account.

At the time Lawrence was decided, Texas was one of only thirteen states that made sodomy a crime. In the rest of the country, consensual same-sex acts had been made legal by legislation.

In other words, the public had adopted what could rightly be called a tolerant view of these acts: whatever people thought of homosexuality, they didn’t think it was a matter for the criminal law, and the political process reflected this cultural and political consensus.

Thus, the ruling in Lawrence, whatever its constitutional merits, ratified an already-existing consensus – it didn’t set out to impose one.

Read More: http://www.crosswalk.com/news/commentary/11636558/