''State v. Limon'', 280 Kan. 275, 122

P.3d The ''Pacific Reporter'', ''Pacific Reporter Second'', and ''Pacific Reporter Third'' () are United States regional law report, case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B. West for West Publishing Company, whic ...

22 (2005), is a Kansas Supreme Court case in which a state law allowing for lesser punishment for statutory rape convictions if the partners were of different sexes than if they were of the same sex was found unconstitutional under both the federal and Kansas state constitutions. It was among the first cases to cite the United States Supreme Court decision ''

Lawrence v. Texas ''Lawrence v. Texas'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that most sanctions of criminal punishment for consensual, adult non- procreative sexual activity (commonly referred to as so ...

'' as precedent, months after the

Virginia Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

did similarly in ''

Martin v. Ziherl ''Martin v. Ziherl'', 607 South Eastern Reporter, S.E.2d 367 (Va. 2005), was a decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia holding that the Virginia criminal law against fornication (sexual acts between unmarried people) was unconstitutional. The ...

''.

Background

In February 2000, a week after his eighteenth birthday, Kansas resident Matthew R. Limon engaged in a consensual act of oral sex with a 14-year-old boy. Both were residents of a home for the mentally disabled. The difference in their ages at the time of the act was three years, one month and a number of days. Under the state's Romeo and Juliet law (K.S.A. § 21-3522), the penalties for statutory rape are less severe if the incident involves two teenagers. The Kansas statute specifically excluded same-sex sexual conduct. Because of this exclusion, Limon was charged under K.S.A. § 21-3505(a)(2) with criminal sodomy. Limon's attorneys filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that K.S.A. § 21-3522 was a violation of the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

of the Fourteenth Amendment because it discriminated on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. The motion was denied and Limon was convicted of criminal sodomy. He was sentenced to 17 years and two months in prison. Had the sexual encounter been between a male and female, the maximum sentence would have been 15 months. Limon was also required to register as a sex offender and to submit to five years of supervision upon release.

Appeals

Limon appealed his case to the

Kansas Court of Appeals The Kansas Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the U.S. state of Kansas. History The Kansas Legislature created the first Kansas Court of Appeals in 1895, to help the Kansas Supreme Court with an increasingly heavy casel ...

, which affirmed his conviction citing '' Bowers v. Hardwick'', 478 U.S. 186 (1986), a United States Supreme Court case which upheld sodomy laws as constitutional. His appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court was also denied and Limon appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 2002. On June 26, 2003, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in ''

'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003) that a Texas state law forbidding consensual sex between two people of the same sex was unconstitutional. In doing so, the Court explicitly overruled ''Bowers'', the basis for the decision by the Kansas Court of Appeals. On June 27, 2003, in light of its decision in ''Lawrence'', the Court granted Limon's petition for certiorari, vacated the decision of the Kansas Court of Appeals, and remanded the case for further consideration in what is known as a

GVR order A grant, vacate, remand order (GVR order) is a type of order issued by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court grants a petition for certiorari, vacates the decision of the court below, and remands the case for further proceedin ...

. The Kansas Court of Appeals again upheld the conviction and sentence in January 2004, in a 2-1 ruling. Since the Kansas Court of Appeals found ''Lawrence'' not to be controlling (because unlike ''Lawrence'' and its consenting adults, Limon's "case involved a 14-year-old developmentally disabled child"), even on remand from the Supreme Court, the case was once again appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, and this time, they accepted the case. The Kansas Supreme Court unanimously ruled on October 21, 2005, that the "Romeo and Juliet" statute violated the Equal Protection Clauses of both the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

and the Kansas constitution and struck the words "and are members of the opposite sex" from K.S.A. § 21-3522. Limon was released from prison on November 3, 2005.

References

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''State v. Limon'', 280 Kan. 275, 122 P.3d 22 (2005) , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2576319/state-v-limon/ , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14536691492268474029 United States LGBT rights case law Sexuality and age Kansas state case law 2005 in United States case law 2005 in Kansas United States equal protection case law LGBT in Kansas 2005 in LGBT history

Background

Appeals

See also

References

Further reading

External links