Bowers V. Hardwick Case Study

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There will be two cases reviewed in this paper to obtain a better understanding of the what caused the U.S Supreme Court to abandon the rule of stare decisis in the Lawrence v. Texas and Bowers v. Hardwick cases. It has been said that societal factors may have been the primary contributor to the decision that were made in the courts at the time (U.S. Supreme Court, n.d). The act that were being argued within the courts were highly frowned upon during the era. So was the U.S Supreme Court decision based on the facts of the case, or societal factors against the act of sodomy at the time?

Let’s take a deeper look into the cases above to determine whether or not the Justices were persuade more by societal factors are Constitutional Laws. Furthermore, let’s review and compare if there has been any changes over …show more content…
Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) case. This case was in direction relation with the overturned ruling of the issue in the Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986) case. Lawrence v. Texas, case was extremely similar to that the way Michael Hardwick case sodomy act were discovered during 1986 (LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS, n.d). In the Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) case there was a disturbance reported which was taking place inside a private residence there was a weapons involved in the incident. It has been said that the Houston police entered Mr. Lawrence’s apartment, this is where they saw him and another man engaging in a private, consensual sexual act (LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS, n.d).

The “Petitioners were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. In affirming, the State Court of Appeals held, inter alia, that the statute was not unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the” (LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS,
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