George Chauncey - Expert Testimony

Expert Testimony

Chauncey has testified as an expert witness in several major gay rights cases, and he was the organizer and lead author of the Historians' Amicus Brief in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which weighed heavily in the Supreme Court's landmark decision overturning the nation's remaining sodomy laws. In that brief, Chauncey argued for the historical specificity of understandings of sodomy, challenging the reasoning in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) that antisodomy laws were an enduring feature of the American legal system.

Chauncey most notably testified as an expert witness in the California Proposition 8 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, on behalf of the successful plaintiffs. In the Perry case, the Court found him to be "qualified to offer testimony on social history, especially as it relates to gays and lesbians." The court recounted his academic qualifications, citing his CV, his authorship of books, and original research using primary sources. The decision cited Chauncey's testimony on a dozen issues of fact or points of law that were relevant to the case.