Texas, have both set precedent and affected the state of relevant laws in their respective eras, as well as have had a substantial impact on our current laws. These decisions have assisted in shaping the laws of today, primarily in a positive way. Bowers v. Hardwick, decided in 1986, held constitutional a Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy between two consenting male adults. Seventeen years later, the Bowers decision was overruled by Lawrence v. Texas, in which the Supreme Court struck down a Texas state law banning private consensual sex between adults of the same sex. Lawrence has set the current precedent in a decision gay rights groups hailed as historic. This paper will analyze the Court's rulings in both cases, discuss the similarities and differences of the cases, and will conclude with a reflection of whether the decisions have positively or negatively impacted the current laws in place today.

             In Bowers v. Hardwick, Hardwick, a male adult, was charged with violating the Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy by committing that act with another adult male in the bedroom of his own home. Hardwick brought suit in the Federal District Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute insofar as it criminalized consensual sodomy, asserting that the Georgia sodomy statute violated the Federal Constitution. The Supreme Court decided the case based on the issue of whether the Federal Constitution conferred a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy, which would invalidate the laws of states that have criminalized such conduct. The Court discussed other cases that involved constitutional rights, such as marriage, privacy and procreation, and determined that there was no connection between Hardwick's claimed constitutional right of homosexuals to engage in acts of sodomy and family, marriage, or procreation. In its final opinion, the Court determined that there was no fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy.