majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
E119848
The majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Byron White, that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
All labels observed (5)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1025151 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick Context triple: [Byron R. White, notableWork, majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick]
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A.
Lawrence v. Texas (in part)
Lawrence v. Texas (in part) is a landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down laws criminalizing consensual same-sex intimacy, expanding constitutional protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
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B.
Reed v. Reed
Reed v. Reed is a landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that for the first time struck down a law for discriminating on the basis of sex under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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C.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Planned Parenthood v. Casey is a landmark 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion while allowing greater state regulation under the “undue burden” standard.
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D.
Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut is a landmark 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized a constitutional right to marital privacy and struck down a state ban on contraceptive use by married couples.
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E.
Doe v. Bolton
Doe v. Bolton is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that, alongside Roe v. Wade, expanded and defined the scope of abortion rights by striking down restrictive state regulations.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick Target entity description: The majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Byron White, that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
-
A.
Lawrence v. Texas (in part)
Lawrence v. Texas (in part) is a landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down laws criminalizing consensual same-sex intimacy, expanding constitutional protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.
-
B.
Reed v. Reed
Reed v. Reed is a landmark 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case that for the first time struck down a law for discriminating on the basis of sex under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
-
C.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Planned Parenthood v. Casey is a landmark 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion while allowing greater state regulation under the “undue burden” standard.
-
D.
Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut is a landmark 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case that recognized a constitutional right to marital privacy and struck down a state ban on contraceptive use by married couples.
-
E.
Doe v. Bolton
Doe v. Bolton is a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that, alongside Roe v. Wade, expanded and defined the scope of abortion rights by striking down restrictive state regulations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Supreme Court majority opinion
ⓘ
judicial opinion ⓘ |
| author |
Byron R. White
ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Byron White
|
| caseCitation | 478 U.S. 186 ⓘ |
| caseName | Bowers v. Hardwick ⓘ |
| citationStyle |
Bowers v. Hardwick
ⓘ
surface form:
Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986)
|
| constitutionalProvisionInterpreted |
Due Process Clause
ⓘ
surface form:
Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1986-06-30 ⓘ |
| docketNumber | No. 85-140 ⓘ |
| effect | upheld the constitutionality of Georgia’s sodomy statute at the time of decision ⓘ |
| held |
a Georgia statute criminalizing sodomy was constitutional as applied to consensual homosexual conduct in the home
ⓘ
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
the Constitution does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy
|
| impact | narrowed the scope of recognized privacy rights under the Due Process Clause until overruled ⓘ |
| joinedBy |
Warren E. Burger
ⓘ
surface form:
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Lewis F. Powell Jr. ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ
surface form:
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
William H. Rehnquist ⓘ
surface form:
Justice William H. Rehnquist
|
| jurisdiction | appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
criminalization of homosexual conduct
ⓘ
right to privacy ⓘ substantive due process ⓘ |
| locationOfChallengedConduct | Hardwick’s home in Georgia ⓘ |
| overruledBy |
Lawrence v. Texas (in part)
ⓘ
surface form:
Lawrence v. Texas
|
| overruledByCitation | 539 U.S. 558 ⓘ |
| overruledByDecisionDate | 2003-06-26 ⓘ |
| partOf | Bowers v. Hardwick ⓘ |
| proceduralPosture | reversal of the Eleventh Circuit’s decision that had found the statute unconstitutional ⓘ |
| reasoning |
concluded that proscriptions against sodomy have ancient roots and therefore do not violate the Due Process Clause
ⓘ
distinguished prior privacy cases involving marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing ⓘ emphasized historical condemnation of homosexual sodomy in Western civilization and American law ⓘ framed the question as whether the Constitution confers a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy ⓘ stated that moral disapproval of homosexual conduct is a rational basis for legislation ⓘ |
| rejectedClaim | that consensual homosexual sodomy is a fundamental right deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
fundamental rights analysis
ⓘ
history and tradition test in substantive due process ⓘ |
| relatedStatute |
Lawrence v. Texas (in part)
ⓘ
surface form:
Georgia sodomy statute
|
| standardOfReview | rational basis review ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
LGBT rights
ⓘ
constitutional law ⓘ criminal law ⓘ |
| subsequentCharacterization | described in Lawrence v. Texas as having been wrongly decided ⓘ |
| subsequentTreatment |
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
criticized in later Supreme Court opinions including Lawrence v. Texas
|
| termOfCourt | October Term 1985 ⓘ |
| voteCount | 5–4 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick Description of subject: The majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, authored by Justice Byron White, that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia law criminalizing consensual homosexual sodomy, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Lawrence v. Texas
this entity surface form:
Bowers v. Hardwick
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
→
hasNotableCase
→
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Bowers v. Hardwick
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
→
held
→
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
the Constitution does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
→
subsequentTreatment
→
majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
criticized in later Supreme Court opinions including Lawrence v. Texas
this entity surface form:
Bowers v. Hardwick dissent (referenced in later LGBT rights jurisprudence)