Byron White

Name: Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court
Author: Byron White

Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

Summary

“Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court”, published in 1986, is a work by Byron White. It explores elements such as sodomy, the Court of Appeals and the Bill of Rights.

Quotes from Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (Byron White)

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ Even if the conduct at issue here is not a fundamental right, respondent asserts that there must be a rational basis for the law and that there is none in this case other than the presumed belief of a majority of the electorate in Georgia that homosexual sodomy is immoral and unacceptable. This is said to be an inadequate rationale to support the law. The law, however, is constantly based on notions of morality, and if all laws representing essentially moral choices are to be invalidated under the Due Process Clause, the courts will be very busy indeed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ Nor are we inclined to take a more expansive view of our authority to discover new fundamental rights imbedded in the Due Process Clause. The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ Precedent aside, however, respondent would have us announce, as the Court of Appeals did, a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy. This we are quite unwilling to do. It is true that despite the language of the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which appears to focus only on the processes by which life, liberty, or property is taken, the cases are legion in which those Clauses have been interpreted to have substantive content, subsuming rights that to a great extent are immune from federal or state regulation or proscription. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ We first register our disagreement with the Court of Appeals and with respondent that the Court's prior cases have construed the Constitution to confer a right of privacy that extends to homosexual sodomy and for all intents and purposes have decided this case. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ Georgia had no criminal sodomy statute until 1816, but sodomy was a crime at common law, and the General Assembly adopted the common law of England as the law of Georgia in 1784. The First Laws of the State of Georgia, pt. 1, p. 290 (1981) . Maryland had no criminal sodomy statute in 1791. Maryland's Declaration of Rights, passed in 1776, however, stated that "the inhabitants of Maryland are entitled to the common law of England," and sodomy was a crime at common law. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ This case does not require a judgment on whether laws against sodomy between consenting adults in general, or between homosexuals in particular, are wise or desirable. It raises no question about the right or propriety of state legislative decisions to repeal their laws that criminalize homosexual sodomy, or of state-court decisions invalidating those laws on state constitutional grounds. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ The issue presented is whether the Federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy and hence invalidates the laws of the many States that still make such conduct illegal and have done so for a very long time. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ Even respondent makes no such claim, but insists that majority sentiments about the morality of homosexuality should be declared inadequate. We do not agree, and are unpersuaded that the sodomy laws of some 25 States should be invalidated on this basis. [8]
Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed.
Notes 1 ↑ . Georgia Code Ann. 16-6-2 (1984) provides, in pertinent part, as follows: " (a) A person commits the offense of sodomy when he performs or submits to any sexual act involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another...." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Byron White, Bowers v. Hardwick — Opinion of the Court (1986)

“ The court first held that, because Doe was distinguishable and in any event had been undermined by later decisions, our summary affirmance in that case did not require affirmance of the District Court. Relying on our decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) ; Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972) ”

Byron White

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