Strict scrutiny | Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs | European Scrutiny Committee |
In 1987, the District Court determined that laws that treat homosexuals as a class must be reviewed under the federal courts' heightened scrutiny standard because homosexuals are a "quasi-suspect class", noting that Bowers v. Hardwick held that only that "under the due process clause lesbians and gay men have no fundamental right to engage in sodomy".
In contrast, the First Circuit held in Cook v. Gates, 528 F.3d 42 (1st Cir. 2008), that heightened scrutiny applied to substantive due process sexual privacy challenges, as opposed to the rational basis review used by the 11th Circuit in Lofton.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in 2008 that under Lawrence v. Texas DADT constitutes an "attempt to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals" and it is subject to "heightened scrutiny", meaning that the government "must advance an important governmental interest, the intrusion must significantly further that interest, and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest."