Why did Michael Hardwick sue Georgia officials after the district attorney declined to prosecute him?

Michael Hardwick filed suit against Georgia officials because he believed the state’s antisodomy law placed him, as a noncelibate homosexual, in imminent danger of arrest and violated his constitutional right to privacy.1

Although the district attorney declined to prosecute him following his initial arrest, Hardwick sought to challenge the constitutionality of the statute itself, arguing that it infringed upon fundamental liberties protected under the Constitution. This legal challenge eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which was later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.1