The Sodomy Cases: Bowers V. Hardwick and Lawrence V. Texas (Landmark Law Cases and American Society)

By David A.J. Richards

Book Overview

The Supreme Court's decision in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) stemmed from a 1982 gay-sex arrest in an Atlanta home under a Georgia law that criminalized sodomy-a case not originally prosecuted, but then pursued in court to challenge the statute's constitutionality. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) followed a similar arrest in 1998 in Houston, where Texas law also criminalized sodomy-but only when practiced by members of the same sex. In Bowers, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional protection for sodomy and that states could outlaw those practices. But in Lawrence, the Court overturned the Texas law-and the Bowers decision as well-because it denied due process protection to consenting adults whose sexual practices were conducted in private. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion reaffirmed a constitutionally protected right to privacy that prevented the government from regulating intimate behavior. David Richards shows how Lawrence finally and unambiguously established the right to a private life as an innately human right, protected by our constitution and resting on the moral bedrock of equal protection. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700616373
• ISBN13: 9780700616374
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.5"