Research Catalog

Title

The sodomy cases : Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas / David A.J. Richards.

Author

Richards, David A. J.

Publication

Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 214 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"The Supreme Court's decision in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) stemmed from a 1982 gay-sex arrest in an Atlanta home under a Georgia law that criminalized sodomy - a case not originally prosecuted, but then pursued in court to challenge the statute's constitutionality. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) followed a similar arrest in 1998 in Houston, where Texas law also criminalized sodomy - but only when practiced by members of the same sex." "David Richards views these cases as the nadir and apogee of the gay community's efforts to fight discrimination through the courts. In Bowers, the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional protection for sodomy and that states could outlaw those practices. But in Lawrence, the Court overturned the Texas law - and the Bowers decision as well - because it denied due process protection to consenting adults whose sexual practices were conducted in private. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion reaffirmed a constitutionally protected right to privacy that prevented the government from regulating intimate behavior." "Tracing the Court's deliberations, Richards shows how Lawrence unambiguously establishes that the right to a private life is an innately human right and that our constitutional right to privacy rests on the moral bedrock of equal protection. He shifts from the law to literature, and from the Courts to the wider culture, to offer an analysis of the relevant arguments, going beneath their surface to link them to the emotional and moral foundations of the controversies raging around these decisions." "Both of these cases show a Supreme Court ready to take seriously the idea that homosexuals have human rights - and that these rights are the basis of judicially enforceable constitutional rights. In describing these challenges to public prejudice, Richards's book offers students and general readers new insight into the practice and theory of constitutional law."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Landmark law cases & American society

Subjects

• Geschichte 2003
• Geschichte 1986
• USA > Supreme Court
• Hardwick, Michael, 1954- > Trials, litigation, etc
• Lawrence, John Geddes > Trials, litigation, etc
• Trials, litigation, etc
• Privacy, Right of > United States > Cases
• Sodomy > United States > Cases

Genre/Form

Trials, litigation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-203) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Breaking the silence -- The constitutional right to privacy : contraception -- The constitutional right to privacy : abortion -- Bowers v. Hardwick : background, briefs, and oral arguments -- Bowers v. Hardwick : the debate among the justices, Justice Powell's shift, and the opinions of the court -- Between Bowers and Lawrence -- Lawrence v. Texas : background, briefs, and oral arguments -- Lawrence v. Texas : opinions of the court -- After Lawrence : decriminalization of other sexual offenses and the case for same-sex marriage -- A concluding perspective on landmark cases in American constitutional law.

ISBN

• 9780700616367 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0700616365 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 9780700616374 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0700616373 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2008044516

OCLC

• 264026984
• SCSB-10429703

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library