Missouri Prosecutor Drops Gay Sex Charges Right After Supremes Rule

Lawrence v. Texas wasn't even hours old when Jefferson County prosecuting attorney Bob Wilkins decided to drop charges against six men busted at an adult video store raid in 2002.

They'd been arrested under a Missouri sexual misconduct law which analysts told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was likely to fall under the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence. The Missouri law mandated up to a year behind bars and a $1,000 fine for first time offenders.

The high court ruled a Texas sodomy law violated the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause and all but told the government to stay out of the nation's bedrooms.

Missouri's attorney general, Jay Nixon, told the Post-Dispatch his office is reviewing the ruling but it may "call into question" the Missouri law. Wilkins himself has said he thinks the state law was unconstitutional, and that he "reluctantly" pressured Award Video.

Undercover police raided the store in March 2002 on a tip saying people were having sex in a small viewing room, the Post-Dispatch said, adding that authorities found no evidence of cash prostitution but that some of the sex acts were done for beer and alcohol.

The Missouri Family Network told the newspaper they were going to continue pressing either to keep the current state law against gay sex or push for a new one if this one ultimately dies. "I don't see our sodomy law as being any more restrictive or offensive than our seat belt law or helmet law or mandatory vaccination laws designed to protect the health of our citizens," said MFN president Kerry Messner to the paper, "so I'm very disappointed."

Several analysts had suggested in various published reports that any similar laws still on the books in states around the country would likely begin falling off the books in the wake of Lawrence.