How did Bowers v. Hardwick affect later discrimination claims by gay and lesbian people before it was overturned?

Following the 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, lower courts frequently cited the ruling to dismiss claims of unconstitutional discrimination brought by gay and lesbian individuals. The legal reasoning employed was that because a group could be constitutionally subjected to criminal penalties for their behavior, they could justifiably be treated differently under the law than other groups.1

This precedent effectively hindered legal challenges regarding equal protection and privacy for years, as it allowed states to maintain antisodomy statutes that criminalized intimate sexual conduct between consenting same-sex adults. The Supreme Court eventually rejected this logic in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), declaring that Bowers was incorrect when it was decided and remained incorrect, thereby affirming that the liberty protected by the Constitution extends to the private, consensual sexual conduct of same-sex couples.12