ABSTRACT
Bowers v. Hardwick ended the battle in federal court for recognition of privacy rights or due process claims on behalf of gay men and lesbians. Lesbian and gay rights litigators in the post-Hardwick years followed this trend of turning to state courts for greater civil rights protections and began bringing sodomy challenges in state court. As of March 2000 at least thirty-three states, if one includes Michigan, have no effective statute on the books criminalizing consensual acts in private. Five states, including Texas and Arkansas, in which challenges are proceeding, have statutes criminalizing only same-sex sodomy. The statutes in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri, the other three same-sex sodomy states, have so far survived constitutional challenges. For the Supreme Court to reverse Hardwick, the right case will have to find its way onto the Court's certiorari docket. Family law in general has been through a number of major changes in the past few decades.
