[5] At the time of the Doe case, 34 states had laws making homosexual acts between consenting adults punishable criminal offenses.

[8] Hirschkop believed that the right to privacy established in previous cases, especially Roe, protected consenting adults' sexual behavior.

In his dissenting opinion he wrote: "The Supreme Court has consistently held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the right of individuals to make personal choices.. A mature individual's choice of an adult sexual partner, in the privacy of his or her own home, would appear to me to be a decision of the utmost private and intimate concern.

Other people worried homosexuality could lead to child predators or threaten the institutions of marriage and family, although there was little evidence to support these claims.

With an invalid warrant, Atlanta police officers entered Hardwick's home for failing to appear in court to answer a public drinking charge.

Neither were prosecuted, but Hardwick decided to file suit in federal district court claiming his constitutional right to privacy was violated.

[17] The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where a majority ruled that sodomy laws had "ancient roots... homosexual conduct has been subject to state intervention throughout the history of Western civilization".

[18] In Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003), the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that sodomy laws were unconstitutional, overturning Doe v. Commonwealth's Attorney and Bowers v. Hardwick.