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''Bowers v. Hardwick'', , is a United States Supreme Court decision, overturned in 2003, that upheld, in a 5–4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bowers v. Hardwick )〕 The majority opinion, written by Justice Byron White, argued that the Constitution did not confer “a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy”.〔 A concurring opinion by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger cited the “ancient roots” of prohibitions against homosexual sex, quoting William Blackstone’s description of homosexual sex as an “infamous crime against nature”, worse than rape, and “a crime not fit to be named”. Burger concluded: “To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.”〔 Justice Lewis F. Powell later said he regretted joining the majority, but thought the case of little importance at the time. The senior dissent, authored by Justice Harry Blackmun, framed the issue as revolving around the right to privacy. Blackmun’s dissent accused the Court of an “almost obsessive focus on homosexual activity and an “overall refusal to consider the broad principles that have informed our treatment of privacy in specific cases”. In response to invocations of religious taboos against homosexuality, Blackmun wrote: “That certain, but by no means all, religious groups condemn the behavior at issue gives the State no license to impose their judgments on the entire citizenry. The legitimacy of secular legislation depends, instead, on whether the State can advance some justification for its law beyond its conformity to religious doctrine.”〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Bowers v. Hardwick, Dissenting opinion by Blackmun )〕 Seventeen years after ''Bowers v. Hardwick'', the Supreme Court directly overruled its decision in ''Lawrence v. Texas'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003), and held that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional. ==Background== In August 1982, an Atlanta police officer issued Michael Hardwick a citation for public drinking after witnessing Hardwick throw a beer bottle into the brush along Monroe Ave after observing him violating the city’s ordinance that prohibits drinking in public. When Hardwick did not appear in court, the court issued an arrest warrant for Hardwick. A few days later, officers went to Hardwick’s apartment to serve the warrant.〔Murdoch and Price, 278〕 Hardwick’s roommate was sleeping on the couch in the living room. The roommate invited officers in and directed them down the hall to Hardwick’s room. The door was open and the officers observed Hardwick and a companion engaged in mutual, consensual oral sex.〔 Hardwick became hostile and threatened to have officers fired for entering his home. Both men were placed under arrest for sodomy, which was defined in Georgia law to include both oral sex and anal sex between members of the same or opposite sex.〔Georgia Code Ann. § 16-6-2 (1984)〕 The local district attorney elected not to present the charge to the grand jury, a prerequisite to any trial or punishment for the offense. Hardwick then sued Michael Bowers, the attorney general of Georgia, in federal court for a declaration that the state’s sodomy law was invalid. He charged that as an active homosexual, he was liable to eventually be prosecuted for his activities. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had been searching for a “perfect test case” to challenge anti-sodomy laws, and Hardwick’s cause presented the one they were looking for.〔Murdoch and Price, 279〕 They approached Hardwick, who agreed to be represented by ACLU attorneys. In the lower federal courts, Hardwick was represented by attorney Kathleen Wilde. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where it was dismissed, with the Court ruling in favor of Attorney-General Bowers. Hardwick appealed, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the lower court, finding that the Georgia sodomy statute was indeed an infringement upon Hardwick’s Constitutional rights. 760 F.2d 1202. The State of Georgia then appealed, and the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari on 4 November 1985, to review the case. Hardwick was represented before the Supreme Court by Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe. Michael Hobbs, assistant attorney general, argued the case for the State. The legality of the officer’s entry into Hardwick’s home was not contested; only the constitutionality of the sodomy statute was challenged. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bowers v. Hardwick」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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