Also known as: crime against nature · sodomy · buggery
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A historical common-law felony that criminalized sodomy or buggery.
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Campus police entered Emma's locked dormitory room after a noise complaint and found her and Lila engaged in private consensual same-sex intimacy. Prosecutors charged both adults under a statute labeled the abominable and detestable crime against nature. The court dismissed the charges because the conduct occurred between fully consenting adults in private with no commercial element.
Tricia and Orlando checked into a locked hotel room and engaged in noncommercial same-sex conduct. Housekeeping staff later reported explicit materials, leading police to arrest the adults under the statute for the abominable and detestable crime against nature. The prosecution proceeded on the theory that the conduct violated the state's morals code.
Deputies responded to a zoning complaint at an off-grid farm and entered a cabin where Jared and Frank, two adult farmhands, were engaged in private consensual conduct. Authorities charged them with the abominable and detestable crime against nature under a county morals code aimed at preserving traditional values. The trial court denied a motion to dismiss and set the case for trial.
Ship security entered Luis and Marco's private stateroom in international waters and discovered the adults engaged in consensual same-sex intimacy. At the next U.S. port, officials charged them under a state statute prohibiting the abominable and detestable crime against nature. The defendants moved to dismiss on constitutional grounds.
Campus police entered Paula and Warren's locked dormitory room after a complaint and observed the consenting adults engaged in same-sex conduct. The prosecutor filed charges under the statute for the abominable and detestable crime against nature, citing the university setting. The defendants moved to dismiss before trial.
Deputies entered a rural cabin on agricultural land and found two adult male farmhands engaged in private consensual conduct. The county charged them with the abominable and detestable crime against nature under a morals code restricting such acts on farming property. The court upheld the charges after finding a rational basis tied to land-use policy.
The phrase referred to sodomy or buggery and was treated as a common-law felony alongside murder, rape, and robbery.
A statute criminalizing private consensual noncommercial same-sex conduct between adults lacks a legitimate state interest and fails rational basis review under the Due Process Clause.
Moral disapproval of the conduct supplies no legitimate governmental objective and cannot sustain the law under due process analysis.
…the right to privacy in Lawrence v. Texas , 539 U.S. 558 (2003), which struck down a Texas statute criminalizing homosexual sodomy. Lawrence relied on the position that criminal sodomy laws, like bans on contraceptives, invaded privacy by inviting “unwarranted government intrusions” that “touc[h] upon the most…