In the 2002 ruling in Lawrence v Texas, the Supreme Court struck down a state statute forbidding private homosexual conduct.

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Gay rights advocates hope this will be the session in which the justices decide a key issue involving same-sex marriage: whether homosexual couples who are legally married under state law are entitled to the same benefits under federal law as heterosexual spouses.

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Both have voted to uphold laws criminalising homosexual acts, banning racial preferences, allowing state-sponsored school prayers, requiring states to subsidise religious instruction and so on.

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