Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Page Number: 68

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

31 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

(or credentials) for immorality, moral turpitude, or unpro-
fessionalism,”  and,  the  survey  added,  “[h]omosexuality  is 
considered to fall within all three categories.”25 

The situation in California is illustrative.  California laws 
prohibited  individuals  who  engaged  in  “immoral  conduct”
(which was construed to include homosexual behavior), as 
well as those convicted of “sex offenses” (like sodomy), from 
employment as teachers.  Cal. Educ. Code Ann.  §§13202, 
13207, 13209, 13218, 13255 (West 1960).  The teaching cer-
tificates of individuals convicted of engaging in homosexual 
acts were revoked.  See, e.g., Sarac v. State Bd. of Ed., 249 
Cal. App. 2d 58, 62–64, 57 Cal. Rptr. 69, 72–73 (1967) (up-
holding  revocation  of  secondary  teaching  credential  from 
teacher who was convicted of engaging in homosexual con-
duct on public beach), overruled in part, Morrison v. State 
Bd. of Ed., 1 Cal. 3d 214, 461 P. 2d 375 (1969).

In Florida, the legislature enacted laws authorizing the
revocation of teaching certificates for “misconduct involving
moral  turpitude,”  Fla.  Stat.  Ann.  §229.08(16)  (1961),  and 
this law was used to target homosexual conduct.  In 1964, 
a legislative committee was wrapping up a 6-year campaign
to  remove  homosexual  teachers  from  public  schools  and
state  universities.  As  a  result  of  these  efforts,  the  state 
board of education apparently revoked at least 71 teachers’ 
certificates and removed at least 14 university professors.
Eskridge, Dishonorable Passions, at 103.

Individuals  who  engaged  in  homosexual  acts  also  faced
the loss of other occupational licenses, such as those needed
to work as a “lawyer, doctor, mortician, [or] beautician.”26 
See, e.g., Florida Bar v. Kay, 232 So. 2d 378 (Fla. 1970) (at-
torney disbarred after conviction for homosexual conduct in 

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25 Rivera, Our Straight-Laced Judges: The Legal Position of Homosex-

ual Persons in the United States, 30 Hastings L. J. 799, 861 (1979). 

26 Eskridge,  Challenging  the  Apartheid  of  the  Closet:  Establishing
Conditions  for  Lesbian  and  Gay  Intimacy,  Nomos,  and  Citizenship, 
1961–1981, 25 Hofstra L. Rev. 817, 819 (1997).