Bowers v. Hardwick (Privacy LGBTQ Rights)

Applying the fundamental rights framework, the Court examined whether Hardwick's claimed right to private consensual sodomy was deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions, and concluded it was not—thus rejecting heightened constitutional protection. Under rational basis review, the Court found that Georgia's asserted interest in upholding traditional moral values was a rational basis sufficient to sustain the statute, rejecting Hardwick's argument that the constitutional right to privacy (established in Griswold and Roe) extended to same-sex intimate conduct. The majority reasoned that extending privacy protections to homosexual sodomy would represent an unprecedented expansion of due process rights unsupported by historical precedent or the nation's moral and legal traditions.