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91st out of 101 books
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232 voters
Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas
No one could have predicted that the night of September 17, 1998, would be anything but routine in Houston, Texas. Even the call to police that a black man was "going crazy with a gun" was hardly unusual in this urban setting. Nobody could have imagined that the arrest of two men for a minor criminal offense would reverberate in American constitutional law, exposing a deep...more
Hardcover, 345 pages
Published
March 12th 2012
by W. W. Norton & Company
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An important book. As he sets the context of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner's 1998 arrest, Carpenter delves heavily into the political landscape of 1980s Houston. Having come of age politically in the Houston area myself during these years, I am reminded of how political rhetoric was dominated by the stuff of culture wars and bigotry. (I am also left curious as to the real issues that were obscured by hyperbole and homophobia. Actual policy issues? Who knows. But we can all remember Louie Welch...more
This is a fascinating account of one of the most important cases in the history of the gay civil rights movement. It contains a mix of factual information and legal analysis, which made the book gripping as well as enlightening. One thing that struck me was how much luck, as well as effort, was involved in bringing the case to a successful conclusion at the Supreme Court. If anyone doubts the importance of voting, and thereby influencing who makes appointments to the Supreme Court, they should r...more
I suppose I should write something. Fine. The book was a fairly interesting read. A page turner, in fact. That's why I gave it three stars.
But it should be said that I find it hard to understand homosexual relations as Mr. Carpenter and the defense attorneys in Lawrence want me to understand them, namely as a means to solidify the bonds of companionship and family. The "official facts" of the case (which Carpenter argues--persuasively by my lights--probably never happened) actually betoken prec...more
But it should be said that I find it hard to understand homosexual relations as Mr. Carpenter and the defense attorneys in Lawrence want me to understand them, namely as a means to solidify the bonds of companionship and family. The "official facts" of the case (which Carpenter argues--persuasively by my lights--probably never happened) actually betoken prec...more
Written by a constitutional law scholar, this book offers a great overview of this landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed all state anti-sodomy laws, and may eventually be seen as the equivalent of the Brown decision for gay Americans. Carpenter was able to interview most of the major players in the case, which led to the book's "big reveal," that the two men arrested for sodomy in September 1998, that led to this case, most likely were not having sex that night.
Though clearly a book that wi...more
Though clearly a book that wi...more
(for a longer, more thorough review, click here).
The New Yorker is one of my favorite magazines, and inside the March 12th issue I came across a fantastic article by writer Dahlia Lithwick, a review of Flagrant Conduct, by Dale Carpenter. By the time I'd finished it, I knew I had to get my hands on the book -- I have a more than keen interest in civil rights history and the growth of social and political power in the nation's gay community. The book examines a case that started with an arrest i...more
The New Yorker is one of my favorite magazines, and inside the March 12th issue I came across a fantastic article by writer Dahlia Lithwick, a review of Flagrant Conduct, by Dale Carpenter. By the time I'd finished it, I knew I had to get my hands on the book -- I have a more than keen interest in civil rights history and the growth of social and political power in the nation's gay community. The book examines a case that started with an arrest i...more
Very interesting book about the sodomy law in Texas and how it was struck down in 2003. It starts with the background of both the people involved in the case and the city of Houston w.r.t gay rights (which I found fascinating, having grown up there and never picked up on any of that stuff). Then the arrest in question, in which the author convincingly argues that Lawrence and Garner were probably not, in fact, having sex when the officers walked in. Somehow that makes the whole case more poignan...more
I'm very disturbed that Goodreads has capitalized the V. in the title.
ETA: They've fixed it!
ETA: They've fixed it!
1 like · like · see review
Fascinating deconstruction of the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case.
In 1998, Houston police received a call that there was a "crazy black man with a gun" at an apartment. They went to the scene, found no gun (it was a false report by a jealous boyfriend), but allegedly discovered two men engaged in a sexual act, IN THE BEDROOM, IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOME. They were arrested, booked, and charged with violating Texas's antisodomy laws.
Carpenter does a great job of laying out the backgrou...more
In 1998, Houston police received a call that there was a "crazy black man with a gun" at an apartment. They went to the scene, found no gun (it was a false report by a jealous boyfriend), but allegedly discovered two men engaged in a sexual act, IN THE BEDROOM, IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOME. They were arrested, booked, and charged with violating Texas's antisodomy laws.
Carpenter does a great job of laying out the backgrou...more
An excellent account of a case that should never have come to court in the first place, but fortunately did, as it enabled the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Texas' prohibition against "sodomy" (a very loosely interpreted and defined collection of sexual acts) and make a huge advance in the equal and fair treatment of LGBT citizens. Reading about the legal negotiations that moved this case forward could have been drier than it was. In particular, the presentation of the case to the Supreme Court...more
It is no exaggeration that this Supreme Court decision from only nine years ago decriminalized gay Americans. Prior to that, it was illegal to be gay in many states insomuch as it involved actual sexual activity. The Lawrence decision, made during the conservative Bush era, overturned all existing sodomy laws and recognized the right for all Americans to enjoy sexual activity in the privacy of their own homes. This book is a comprehensive tour of the case as it moved to the Supreme Court and pre...more
A very readable history of one of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases in my lifetime. You know -- Lawrence v. Texas, the one that said I was no longer living a life of crime just by leading my day-to-day life in my home state. From the incident itself (which probably didn't even really happen!) up through the final decision, this is really quite a riveting story. It was most interesting to see how a seminal case like this is handled by a national organization through the process, careful...more
The explanation of this fascinating subject is almost a mystery with lots of characters involved in "How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans." The author's scholarly attention to detail dampened my enthusiasm at times. Perhaps I needed the Cliff Notes version of the story or if I had a better grasp of legal terms and practices, it would have been an easier read.
Note: I support independent bookstores and encourage you to check out http://www.indiebound.org/ to find your closest bookstor...more
Note: I support independent bookstores and encourage you to check out http://www.indiebound.org/ to find your closest bookstor...more
In this compelling page turner, Carpenter dissects the facts behind and circuitous routes through which the arrests of Tyron Garner and John Geddes Lawrence led to a landmark Supreme Court case. He examines the historical, social, legal, and personal factors and forces at play as well as the veracity of the major actors’ claims. It seems like the stars aligned for the personalities and legal statutes to be framed in such a way that lawyers had the perfect case, if not the perfect clients.
In the...more
In the...more
As someone with an avowed fascination with the US Supreme Court, I found Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas to be a thoroughly engrossing tale of this landmark case.
While repetitive at times, this book demonstrated how easy it has been through history for the majority to marginalized those who are different simply because of the perceived differences. Justice Kennedy's opinion for the majority in this case is a truly moving statement affirming the general privacy rights of all US c...more
While repetitive at times, this book demonstrated how easy it has been through history for the majority to marginalized those who are different simply because of the perceived differences. Justice Kennedy's opinion for the majority in this case is a truly moving statement affirming the general privacy rights of all US c...more
The whole time I was reading this book, I kept thinking how much I wish I cold talk with my uncle about it (he was a law professor and gay rights activist in Houston). In the last chapter, Carpenter describes the quickly-organized rally held on the steps of the Houston city hall, the evening after the Lawrence decision came down: "[then City Council President Annise] Parker spoke, followed by Linda Morales. Both noted the absence of movement heroes like Gene Harrington, a gay law professor, and...more
An extremely relevant read given the Supreme Court's recent decision to hear two gay marriage cases and I enjoyed the light it shed on the Supreme Court process in general. But boy, this was disjointed. Every chapter seemed like it's own little essay and Carpenter ended up repeating a lot of information and contradicting himself (look, the homosexual conduct law was either horribly oppressing and cast a pall over all gay people or it was so obscure no one knew about it. It cannot be both). And t...more
An engaging account of the landmark Lawrence decision. Two cultural revolutions occurred during the past two decades: gays, and guns. It surprises me how the society won one and lost the other.
Trivia: the attorneys from Georgia and Texas, arguing Bowers and Lawrence respectively, seventeen years apart, were both having an extramarital affair during that time, while they were before the Supreme Court "defending family values."
Trivia: the attorneys from Georgia and Texas, arguing Bowers and Lawrence respectively, seventeen years apart, were both having an extramarital affair during that time, while they were before the Supreme Court "defending family values."
I give Carpenter high marks for providing a literary perspective to this landmark Supreme Court case.
Although, I knew the outcome, I was still engaged enough by his prose to anticipate the verdict.
My only gripe with the book was Carpenter's blatant bias. It would have been much better without his editorial comments and unnecessary embellishments.
TD
Although, I knew the outcome, I was still engaged enough by his prose to anticipate the verdict.
My only gripe with the book was Carpenter's blatant bias. It would have been much better without his editorial comments and unnecessary embellishments.
TD
I really wanted to like this book, because I really wanted to read it. But the writing just plodded. I didn't mind the author's obvious bias - well, I did, but I could have dealt with it - but by the time I'd read 75 pages and he'd said "as we shall see" what seemed like a dozen times, I'd had it. Back to the library with you, Flagrant Conduct.
The beginning is fascinating, but the middle is a bit slow and gets bogged down in court procedures. However, once the narrative reached the Supreme Court (in the last 100 pages), I could barely put the book down. A must read if interested in gay politics and topical because of the marriage cases on the Court's calendar!
It was notable how recent (2000s) very aggressive behavior against homosexuals is. Also, I had no idea the supreme court struck down sodomy laws in 2003. The book itself was a bit more detailed that I needed (made-up example: let's spend a few paragraphs on the step-sister of the prosecutor).
"I recommend Dale Carpenter’s Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas. This is a fascinating and readable account of the ins and outs of how the Supreme Court of the United States came to hold unconstitutional the criminal punishment of homosexual sodomy." — Geoffrey R. Stone
Laid out clearly and plainly and interesting for a book about a legal case. The jaw-dropping parts are the laws that were in place so recently and the history of gay rights in America. I thought I knew all about it, but I clearly didn't. For a shorter version, there is a really great New Yorker article about it.
This book is a good read if you enjoy history. I was interested in it because I wanted to know more about the case. Some parts tend to drag on a bit, but the information you receive from it is priceless.
Excellently written. Carpenter makes the wonky details of legal processes and insider politics accessible and interesting to both a lay and legal audience - not an easy task. Fascinating background information to the case, thought-provoking perspective. Very good.
Interesting behind-the-scenes story of Lawrence v. Texas. It is not the gay love story that one may think but a tale of the combustible mix of race and class in Texas.
Flagrant Conduct is an enlightening account of how the Texas sodomy law was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case known as Lawrence v. Texas.
I enjoyed this well-written account of the events surrounding the Lawrence v. Texas (2003) Supreme Court Case. The story is interesting, and contains some unexpected elements as Carpenter delves into the lives, not only of the two men whose arrest led to this landmark ruling, but also of the officers and other officials who arrested and prosecuted them.
This was an interesting overview of the case and its history, but not totally riveting in the storytelling.
This book was very well written, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in LGBT rights/ politics. There were a few things that made me uneasy (mostly how it felt like these big shot power lawyers were using Lawrence and Gardner) but those were faults more with the actors in this drama, not with the author of this book. Either way, a good overview of a landmark case. My further thoughts on the title can be found at bisexual-books.tumblr.com.
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Dale Carpenter, J.D. (b. 1966) is is an American legal commentator, regular contributor to The Volokh Conspiracy, and Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, specializing in constitutional law. He was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Chicago Law Review while working on his doctoral degree, after receiving his B.A. in history f...more
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“Police throughout the United States have been caught fabricating, planting, and manipulating evidence to obtain convictions where cases would otherwise be very weak. Some authorities regard police perjury as so rampant that it can be considered a "subcultural norm rather than an individual aberration" of police officers. Large-scale investigations of police units in almost every major American city have documented massive evidence of tampering, abuse of the arresting power, and discriminatory enforcement of laws. There also appears to be widespread police perjury in the preparation of reports because police know these reports will be used in plea bargaining. Officers often justify false and embellished reports on the grounds that it metes out a rough justice to defendants who are guilty of wrongdoing but may be exonerated on technicalities. [internal citations omitted]”
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“Start with the observation that American law is not designed to catch and punish every instance of illegal conduct. Nothing short of a totalitarian state could do that. It is designed to prosecute persons when there is a reasonable basis for believing they have committed a crime, and then to convict them when there is no reasonable doubt that they are guilty.”
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04 mag. 16:35