Final answer:
The legal issue in Atwater v. Lago Vista involved the constitutionality of a warrantless arrest for a minor crime, which was resolved by the Supreme Court affirming that such an arrest is not in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The legal issue presented in the Atwater v. Lago Vista, Texas case, is not explicitly detailed in the provided information. However, for clarity, Atwater v. Lago Vista was a case where the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of a warrantless arrest for a minor criminal offense, punishable only by a fine. The court held that an arrest with probable cause does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even if the misdemeanor does not involve any jail time. This ruling had significant implications for policing practices in the United States.
While the content provided talks extensively about Lawrence v. Texas, another landmark case in Texas, it focuses on LGBTQ rights and sodomy laws, which is a separate legal issue from Atwater v. Lago Vista. Lawrence v. Texas was significant in that the Supreme Court found that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, thus making sodomy laws applied to consenting adults unconstitutional.