Court Opinion

ID: 9470161
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:58:25.922409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:45.630419
License: Public Domain

FAGG, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The holding in this case is a narrow one indeed. We are dealing with the undisputed facts of Lemons’ conviction—oral sexual activity by male partners in a public restroom. The issue of Lemons’ right to make private affectional choices is not involved in our holding. He simply does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy under the federal constitution to consummate his chosen sexual intimacy in a public restroom. It is Lemons’ conduct, not his homosexual status, that has exposed him to punishment. Under the Arkansas criminal code, any person performing oral sexual activity in a public restroom is in violation of the Arkansas law and would be subject to the same penalty as Lemons. Hence, in the final analysis, Lemons has not been discriminated against because of his sexual preference. He has been treated the same as every other person engaging in identical conduct would be treated. The application of the sodomy statute to him does not generate an equal protection claim which requires a response on our part. Therefore, it is appropriate for this court to exercise judicial restraint, narrowly limit our constitutional analysis of the sodomy statute to its application in the real life factual situation at hand, and decline Lemons’ invitation that we reach out and measure the constitutionality of the statute by facts and applications that are not yet before the court.