They also returned to the after-club party scene, in which "doctors, lawyers, young professionals" were using meth, Mangini said.

"I was very antidrug," he explained. "My perception of drug addicts was that they're dirty lowlifes. Unfortunately, because of my bad judgment, I decided it can't be bad if [professionals] were doing it."

The couple's meth use progressed quickly from a weekend "social thing" to a daily addiction that eventually had both men taking the drug intravenously. In December 2002, unable to focus and chronically late, Mangini quit his job. Roberts had already been fired.

"I think I was incapable of getting a job," Roberts recalled. "People around me convinced me it would be easier to sell" meth.

Mangini said he was not happy that Roberts was dealing, but "we were both so lost in the addiction, we couldn't rescue each other. We didn't even look human. Those are some of the most ugly memories of my life."

In December 2003, police broke through their front door and arrested the couple. Out on bail, they fled to Florida. Mangini attributed their getaway to "fear, stupidity, and being at the height of our addiction." Less than two weeks later, they were apprehended in Miami Beach.

The two men pleaded guilty in 2004 to possession of 100 grams of meth with intent to sell. Roberts, who did most of the dealing, was sentenced to 30 months, served at Allenwood federal prison. Mangini got 18 months at the minimum-security jail at Fort Dix, N.J.

Two months after Mangini was released, in June 2005, he was diagnosed with AIDS. (Roberts, out in June 2006, remains healthy, he said.)

Less than a week before Roberts was released, he and Mangini were told about the law banning contact between them.

"We were desperate," Roberts said. He reached out to the national ACLU, which, after some debate, took the case, along with the Philadelphia office of the state ACLU and Peter Goldberger, an Ardmore-based criminal defense lawyer and member of the state board.

Because Mangini and Roberts were convicted drug-dealers and former addicts, there was some concern that the public would not be sympathetic and that the case would not move opinion on gay equality. The two men themselves also agonized over whether to go public.

"We weren't politically active. We just lived our lives," Roberts said. "This was the first time we had been discriminated against, and it made us angry."

Mangini was the more reluctant of the two. "I've never been one to buck the system," he said. "Steven convinced me that this horror story we lived through had implications for a bigger cause."

The victory didn't come easily.

In January, Katz declined to consider the couple's request on procedural grounds. On July 9, Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit directed Katz to address the issue on its merits.

In his 30-page opinion, Katz said prohibiting contact between Mangini and Roberts was unconstitutional, and ruled that they were entitled to the same treatment "as individuals in other kinds of family relationships."

Roberts is living with his brother in Spring City, and works as a roofer. Mangini resides with Roberts' uncle in Devon, and is on disability. The men no longer need permission from the U.S. Probation Office to associate, but it is required if they want to change residences or live together, said Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney of the Pennsylvania ACLU.

Mangini and Roberts see each other about every other day, and on weekends. They want to reconnect gradually before moving in together.

"We have a lot of growing, talking to do," Roberts said. Also, Mangini's health is an issue. It's so fragile at this point, he said, that he must be in a stress-free environment.