I find Dwight's references to the Bowers v. Hardwick case amusing.

The Bowers v. Hardwick Case did not require the United States Supreme Court to make a judgment on whether laws against sodomy between consenting adults in general, or between homosexuals in particular, are wise or desirable. The case did not raise a question about the right or propriety of state legislative decisions to repeal laws that criminalized homosexual sodomy, or of state court decisions invalidating those laws on state constitutional grounds.

What was put before the United States Supreme Court to judge and decide is whether the Federal Constitution itself confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy, and hence invalidates the laws of many States that still make such conduct illegal, and have done so for a very long time.

The USSC, by a 5 to 4 majority decision, disagreed with the Court of Appeals and with the respondent (Hardwick) that the Constitution confers a right to privacy that extends to homosexual sodomy. The Court ruled no such right to privacy to conduct homosexual sodomy was reached in prior cases of the Court. The Court further stated the claim that such a right to engage in such conduct was deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition or implicit in the concept of ordered liberty was a facetious claim. The Court further reasoned that sodomy laws should not be invalidated on the asserted basis that majority belief that sodomy is immoral is an 'inadequate' rationale to support the laws.

What is amusing about Dwight's references to this case is that the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the Georgia sodomy law in 1998 (Powell v. The State). Hence, gays and lesbians in the State of Georgia have their right to privacy affirmed by the State's highest court.

Since the Georgia Supreme Court has struct down the sodomy law on the basis of violating a person's right to privacy, as implied in the State Constitution of Georgia, the effect of Bowers v. Hardwick becomes moot.

[This message has been edited by SunDogg (edited March 24, 2001).]