Marriage Litigation Strategy: From John Lawrence to Kristin Perry

"Lambda Legal took a case that needed to go to the Supreme Court: the continued acceptance of criminal anti-sodomy laws under Bowers v. Hardwick gave legitimacy to every piece of anti-gay legislation and every instance of anti-gay discrimination. It needed to go. And, Lambda attorneys crafted the best legal strategy to win: they chose the right lawyer, they told the right story, and argued the right cases to appeal to swing Justices. And, this is what every lawyer does if he wants to win. Law students learn to frame the facts in such a way that favors your client; you are, after all, telling a story. So, tell your story, because if the judge believes your story, your conclusions follow. That is why every brief starts with a facts section—the sides are arguing about what really happened, what the case is really about. As Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal, noted in The Huffington Post, '[t]he issue in Lawrence v. Texas was not about what was going on in John Lawrence's bedroom, but rather about the conduct of the government and the unconstitutionality of the law that authorized its actions.'"

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