The holding has defined limits. It does not protect coercion, abuse, conduct involving minors, public sexual activity, or every commercial arrangement. Nor does it guarantee that personal conduct remains secret from every private person or free from every social consequence. Constitutional privacy restricts specified government action. A private person's disclosure of information requires another legal source, while government use of an unreasonable search to obtain information begins with the Fourth Amendment.

Nearby disputes require different doctrines. A state refusal to issue a same-sex marriage license invokes Obergefell and the constitutional status of marriage. A covered employer's decision to fire a worker for being gay or transgender invokes Title VII under Bostock. A public school rule, military regulation, or licensing decision requires attention to the institution, the conduct regulated, and any separate constitutional or statutory authority. The people involved may be the same, but criminal punishment, marriage recognition, and employment discrimination are different legal acts.

A useful comparison begins with two laws. One criminalizes private consensual adult intimacy because officials morally disapprove of it; Lawrence directly governs. The other punishes force or exploitation; the missing consent changes the liberty claim and supports a different governmental interest. On a CLEP item, identify adulthood, consent, privacy of the conduct, and government punishment. Do not turn Lawrence into a universal rule for every dispute concerning sexuality, and do not confuse it with marriage or employment law.

Video lesson: Due process and the right to privacy | AP US Government & Politics | Khan Academy