Bowers

7 Pages 1633 Words

1. The Supreme Court case “Bowers, Attorney General of Georgia V. Hardwick et al.” , decided on June 30, 1986, preceeded the case of “John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Gardner V. Texas”, which was decided on June 26, 2003. Both cases dealt with legality of sodomy, as it pertains to homosexual couples. The traditionalist view held that sodomy was against God, and did not untimately yield procreation. The argument of the homosexuals involved was that the statute violated their freedom under the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the state’s Constitution.
In Bowers, the Supreme Court Justice’s majority decision was that the Gergia statute which states that sodomy acts committed with a same sex partner are illegal. Hardwick was convicted of these acts and therefore brought suit to the state, challenging the true legality of these laws, as he believed they interfered with his personal freedoms. The Supreme Court decided:
“The constituition does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy. None of the fundamental rights announced in this Court’s prior cases involving family relationships, marriage, or procreation bear any resemblance to the right asserted in this case. And any claim that those cases stand for the proposition that any kind of provate sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally insulated from the state proscription is unsupportable.” (Bowers)
Due to the fact that homosexual sex is not in the legal definition of marriage, or accepted straight relationships, it was not seen as protected by the state in the Constitution.
In Lawrence, the Supreme Court Justice’s majority decision was to overrule the finding in Bowers, declaring that sodomy acts between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes, are legal as definaed by the Constitution and the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence and Garner were arrest...