Bowers vs. Hardwick Case Study
NAME: Bowers v. Hardwick
478 U.S. 186 (1986) FACTS OF THE CASE: George Hardwick was seen by a Georgia police officer committing consensual homosexual sodomy. The officer was coming to arrest him because he did not pay off his violation ticket. Hardwick was then charged for criminalized sodomy due to a Georgia statute. The federal district court dismissed the case because Hardwick failed to make a valid claim against the constitutionality. When appealed, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the court’s decision, saying the statute was unconstitutional. The Attorney General of Georgia appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted certiorari.
THE LAW: Georgia Code16-6-2, provided a 1 to 20 year mandatory sentence for adults consenting and committing any sexual act including the sex organ of one person and the mouth or anus of another. The aspect of the Constitution being examined is the fourteenth amendment, which is the privacy and due process clause.
LEGAL QUESTION: Does the Constitution offer a right to privacy to allow homosexuals to engage in sexual sodomy, which in turns makes the laws of many states against sodomy invalid?
DECISION: NO; 5-4
RATIONALE: The court did not believe the there is constitutional protection for the act of sodomy, because it violated “deeply rooted [beliefs] in the Nation’s history and tradition.”
CONCURRING OPINION: Burger: The act so heinous need not be named and if the Court were to “protect the act of sodomy would cast aside a millennia of moral teaching.”
DISSENTING OPINION: Blackmun: The Court focused on the fact of homosexual sodomy, instead of the issue of the right of privacy offered by the 14th amendment.
QUOTE: “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty”
EVALUATION: NO, constitutional question of if the 14th amendment was
478 U.S. 186 (1986) FACTS OF THE CASE: George Hardwick was seen by a Georgia police officer committing consensual homosexual sodomy. The officer was coming to arrest him because he did not pay off his violation ticket. Hardwick was then charged for criminalized sodomy due to a Georgia statute. The federal district court dismissed the case because Hardwick failed to make a valid claim against the constitutionality. When appealed, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the court’s decision, saying the statute was unconstitutional. The Attorney General of Georgia appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted certiorari.
THE LAW: Georgia Code16-6-2, provided a 1 to 20 year mandatory sentence for adults consenting and committing any sexual act including the sex organ of one person and the mouth or anus of another. The aspect of the Constitution being examined is the fourteenth amendment, which is the privacy and due process clause.
LEGAL QUESTION: Does the Constitution offer a right to privacy to allow homosexuals to engage in sexual sodomy, which in turns makes the laws of many states against sodomy invalid?
DECISION: NO; 5-4
RATIONALE: The court did not believe the there is constitutional protection for the act of sodomy, because it violated “deeply rooted [beliefs] in the Nation’s history and tradition.”
CONCURRING OPINION: Burger: The act so heinous need not be named and if the Court were to “protect the act of sodomy would cast aside a millennia of moral teaching.”
DISSENTING OPINION: Blackmun: The Court focused on the fact of homosexual sodomy, instead of the issue of the right of privacy offered by the 14th amendment.
QUOTE: “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty”
EVALUATION: NO, constitutional question of if the 14th amendment was