Is Lawrence Libertarian?

Lawrence v. Texas 1 begins with Liberty and ends with freedom. 2 For the first time in its history the Supreme Court invalidated a law criminalizing sexual conduct. Add to that sweeping statements in Lawrence celebrating individual autonomy. 3 Consider too the Court\u27s surprising revival of substantive due process, a doctrine entombed with musty traditions in liberty-denying decisions like Bowers v. Hardwick 4 and Washington v. Glucksberg. 5 What is more, Lawrence is not your father\u27s substantive due process. The pre-Lawrence doctrine bifurcated the world into a large domain of almost unprotected liberty interests and a very small and increasingly choosy domain of strongly protected fundamental rights. Lawrence collapsed these claims into one, liberty, by avoiding the standard levels of scrutiny. And even that is not all it did. Lawrence undermined the quaint and unprincipled distinction between personal rights (some of which were protected) and economic rights (not protected). That distinction had divided pre-New Deal America from post-New Deal America, ratifying a dramatic expansion of government power at all levels and sharply limiting judicial authority to exalt individual rights. Now all liberty, whether of the economic or personal sort, will be protected. Henceforth, the burden rests with the government to justify its regulations or denials of liberty, not with individuals to prove their liberties are fundamental. The bureaucrats with their stifling regulations, the lobbyists with their rent-seeking ways, and the moralists with their nosy preferences must pay heed. If the Court really means what i