What did the Supreme Court decide in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986?

In the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 to uphold a Georgia state law that criminalized sodomy.1

Writing for the majority, Justice Byron R. White rejected the argument that the Constitution confers a fundamental right for homosexuals to engage in sodomy. The Court determined that the law did not infringe upon a fundamental right and therefore only required a "rational basis" for its existence. The Court held that the law was rationally related to the legitimate government purpose of reflecting the belief of the majority of Georgia's electorate that such acts were immoral.1

This decision was later explicitly overruled by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which declared that Bowers was incorrect when it was decided and remained incorrect.1