BORK, Circuit Judge:
The dissent from the court’s denial of the suggestion of rehearing en banc undertakes to chide the panel for criticizing the Supreme Court’s right to privacy cases and for failing to extract discernible principle from those cases for application here. In rather extravagant terms the dissent accuses the panel of such sins as attempting to “wipe away” Supreme Court decisions, of “throw[ing] down gauntlets” to that Court, and “conductpng] a general spring cleaning of constitutional law.” While rhetorical excess may be allowed to pass, we think that underlying it in this instance are serious misunderstandings that require a response.1
In the first place, the dissent overlooks both what we actually did and the necessity for it. The appellant cited a series of cases — Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); and Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678, 97 S.Ct.2010, 52 L.Ed.2d 675 (1977) — which he claimed established a privacy right to engage in homosexual conduct. It was, therefore, essential that- the panel examine those decisions to determine whether they did enunciate a principle so broad. We quoted the pivotal language in each case and concluded that no principle had been articulated that enabled us to determine whether appellant’s case fell within or without that principle. In these circumstances, we thought it improper for a court of appeals to create a new constitutional right of the sort appellant sought. That much is certainly straightforward exegesis. The dissenters appear to be exercised, however, because the conclusion that we could not discover a unifying principle underlying these eases seems to them an implicit criticism of the Supreme Court’s performance in this area. So it may be, but, if so, the implied assessment was inevitable. It is difficult to know how to reach the conclusion that no principle is discernible in decisions without seeming to criticize those decisions. Had our real purpose been to propose, as the dissent says, that those cases be eliminated from constitutional law, we would have engaged in a much more extensive analysis than we undertook. As it [1583] was, we said no more than we thought required by the appellant’s argument.
Unless the dissent believes that we are obliged to dissemble, enunciating a unifying principle where we think none exists, then its only criticism must be with the adequacy of our analysis rather than our bona fides. That criticism, we may note, would be a good deal more persuasive if the dissent set forth (as it conspicuously did not) the unifying principle that we so obviously overlooked.
Contrary to the dissent’s assertion, moreover, the panel opinion explained the rational basis for the Navy’s policy with respect to overt homosexual conduct. Slip op. at 20-21. We cannot take seriously the dissent’s suggestion that the Navy may be constitutionally required to treat heterosexual conduct and homosexual conduct as either morally equivalent or as posing equal dangers to the Navy’s mission. Relativism in these matters may or may not be an arguable moral stance, a point that we as a court of appeals are not required to address, but moral relativism is hardly a constitutional command, nor is it, we are certain, the moral stance of a large majority of naval personnel.
Though we think that our analysis of the privacy cases was both required and accurate, we think it worth addressing the rather curious version of the duties of courts of appeals that the dissent urges. It is certainly refreshing to see “judicial restraint” advocated with such ardor, but we think the dissent misapprehends the concept. “Judicial restraint” is shorthand for the philosophy that courts ought not to invade the domain the Constitution marks out for democratic rather than judicial governance. That philosophy does not even remotely suggest that a court may not offer criticism of concepts employed by a superior court. Some very eminent jurists have done just that and have thereby contributed to the growth and rationality of legal doctrine. See, e.g., Salerno v. American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 429 F.2d 1003, 1005 (2d Cir.1970) (Friendly, J.) (criticizing Supreme Court cases holding professional baseball exempt from federal antitrust laws); United States v. Dennis, 183 F.2d 201, 207-212 (2d Cir.1950) (L. Hand, J.), aff'd, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S.Ct. 857, 95 L.Ed. 1137 (1951) (criticizing Supreme Court’s explication and application of the “clear and present danger” test, and proposing a reformulation of that test which the Court proceeded to approve, 341 U.S. at 510, 71 S.Ct. at 867); United States v. Roth, 237 F.2d 796, 801 (2d Cir.1956) (Frank, J., concurring) (criticizing the Supreme Court’s decisions affirming the constitutionality of an obscenity statute as overlooking a variety of historical, sociological, and psychological grounds for calling the constitutionality of the statute into question). See also Arnold, Judge Jerome Frank, 24 U.Chi.L.Rev. 633, 633 (1957) (“When forced by stare decisis to reach what he considered an undesirable result [Judge Frank] would write a concurring opinion analyzing the problem and plainly suggesting that either the Supreme Court or Congress do something about it. It was a unique and useful technique whereby a lower court judge could pay allegiance to precedent and at the same time encourage the processes of change.”). None of the judges mentioned could be characterized as lacking judicial restraint.
The judicial hierarchy is not, as the dissent seems to suppose, properly modelled on the military hierarchy in which orders are not only carried out but accepted without any expression of doubt. Law is an intellectual system and courts are not required to approve uncritically any idea advanced by a constitutionally superior court. Lower court judges owe the Supreme Court obedience, not unquestioning approval. Without obedience by lower courts, the law would become chaos. Without reasoned criticism, the law would become less rational and responsive to difficulties. The fact that criticism may come from within the judicial system will often make it more valuable rather than less. We say this, [1584] however, only to clarify the question of the proper relationship between inferior and superior courts and more for its application to future cases than to this one. In the present case, as we have said, any criticism the dissent may believe it detects in the panel opinion was at most implicit and inseparable from the analysis required of us.
STARR, Circuit Judge:
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BORK, Circuit Judge:
The dissent from the court’s denial of the suggestion of rehearing en banc undertakes to chide the panel for criticizing the Supreme Court’s right to privacy cases and for failing to extract discernible principle from those cases for application here. In rather extravagant terms the dissent accuses the panel of such sins as attempting to “wipe away” Supreme Court decisions, of “throw[ing] down gauntlets” to that Court, and “conductpng] a general spring cleaning of constitutional law.” While rhetorical excess may be allowed to pass, we think that underlying it in this instance are serious misunderstandings that require a response.1
In the first place, the dissent overlooks both what we actually did and the necessity for it. The appellant cited a series of cases — Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); and Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678, 97 S.Ct.2010, 52 L.Ed.2d 675 (1977) — which he claimed established a privacy right to engage in homosexual conduct. It was, therefore, essential that- the panel examine those decisions to determine whether they did enunciate a principle so broad. We quoted the pivotal language in each case and concluded that no principle had been articulated that enabled us to determine whether appellant’s case fell within or without that principle. In these circumstances, we thought it improper for a court of appeals to create a new constitutional right of the sort appellant sought. That much is certainly straightforward exegesis. The dissenters appear to be exercised, however, because the conclusion that we could not discover a unifying principle underlying these eases seems to them an implicit criticism of the Supreme Court’s performance in this area. So it may be, but, if so, the implied assessment was inevitable. It is difficult to know how to reach the conclusion that no principle is discernible in decisions without seeming to criticize those decisions. Had our real purpose been to propose, as the dissent says, that those cases be eliminated from constitutional law, we would have engaged in a much more extensive analysis than we undertook. As it [1583] was, we said no more than we thought required by the appellant’s argument.
Unless the dissent believes that we are obliged to dissemble, enunciating a unifying principle where we think none exists, then its only criticism must be with the adequacy of our analysis rather than our bona fides. That criticism, we may note, would be a good deal more persuasive if the dissent set forth (as it conspicuously did not) the unifying principle that we so obviously overlooked.
Contrary to the dissent’s assertion, moreover, the panel opinion explained the rational basis for the Navy’s policy with respect to overt homosexual conduct. Slip op. at 20-21. We cannot take seriously the dissent’s suggestion that the Navy may be constitutionally required to treat heterosexual conduct and homosexual conduct as either morally equivalent or as posing equal dangers to the Navy’s mission. Relativism in these matters may or may not be an arguable moral stance, a point that we as a court of appeals are not required to address, but moral relativism is hardly a constitutional command, nor is it, we are certain, the moral stance of a large majority of naval personnel.
Though we think that our analysis of the privacy cases was both required and accurate, we think it worth addressing the rather curious version of the duties of courts of appeals that the dissent urges. It is certainly refreshing to see “judicial restraint” advocated with such ardor, but we think the dissent misapprehends the concept. “Judicial restraint” is shorthand for the philosophy that courts ought not to invade the domain the Constitution marks out for democratic rather than judicial governance. That philosophy does not even remotely suggest that a court may not offer criticism of concepts employed by a superior court. Some very eminent jurists have done just that and have thereby contributed to the growth and rationality of legal doctrine. See, e.g., Salerno v. American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, 429 F.2d 1003, 1005 (2d Cir.1970) (Friendly, J.) (criticizing Supreme Court cases holding professional baseball exempt from federal antitrust laws); United States v. Dennis, 183 F.2d 201, 207-212 (2d Cir.1950) (L. Hand, J.), aff'd, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S.Ct. 857, 95 L.Ed. 1137 (1951) (criticizing Supreme Court’s explication and application of the “clear and present danger” test, and proposing a reformulation of that test which the Court proceeded to approve, 341 U.S. at 510, 71 S.Ct. at 867); United States v. Roth, 237 F.2d 796, 801 (2d Cir.1956) (Frank, J., concurring) (criticizing the Supreme Court’s decisions affirming the constitutionality of an obscenity statute as overlooking a variety of historical, sociological, and psychological grounds for calling the constitutionality of the statute into question). See also Arnold, Judge Jerome Frank, 24 U.Chi.L.Rev. 633, 633 (1957) (“When forced by stare decisis to reach what he considered an undesirable result [Judge Frank] would write a concurring opinion analyzing the problem and plainly suggesting that either the Supreme Court or Congress do something about it. It was a unique and useful technique whereby a lower court judge could pay allegiance to precedent and at the same time encourage the processes of change.”). None of the judges mentioned could be characterized as lacking judicial restraint.
The judicial hierarchy is not, as the dissent seems to suppose, properly modelled on the military hierarchy in which orders are not only carried out but accepted without any expression of doubt. Law is an intellectual system and courts are not required to approve uncritically any idea advanced by a constitutionally superior court. Lower court judges owe the Supreme Court obedience, not unquestioning approval. Without obedience by lower courts, the law would become chaos. Without reasoned criticism, the law would become less rational and responsive to difficulties. The fact that criticism may come from within the judicial system will often make it more valuable rather than less. We say this, [1584] however, only to clarify the question of the proper relationship between inferior and superior courts and more for its application to future cases than to this one. In the present case, as we have said, any criticism the dissent may believe it detects in the panel opinion was at most implicit and inseparable from the analysis required of us.
STARR, Circuit Judge:
It is not the province of the lower federal courts to chide the Supreme Court for decisions that, in the considered view of federal judges, may be ill-reasoned or misguided. It is our bounden duty, whatever our own views of the matter may be, to follow in good faith applicable precedent, no matter how disagreeable that precedent might be.
But in my judgment, the panel in its opinion for the court has simply not strayed from this elementary judicial obligation. To the contrary, the panel’s moving beyond Doe v. Commonwealth’s Attorney, 425 U.S. 901, 96 S.Ct. 1489, 47 L.Ed.2d 751 (1976), to examine more broadly the Supreme Court’s teachings on the right of privacy, beginning with Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965), seems not only appropriate but necessary to treat dispassionately and fairly the constitutional claims advanced by Mr. Dronenburg.
And I am satisfied that the panel has rightly analyzed the applicable materials. It simply cannot seriously be maintained under existing case law that the right of privacy extends beyond such traditionally protected areas as the home or beyond traditional relationships — the relationship of husband and wife, or parents to children, or other close relationships, including decisions in matters of childbearing — or that the analytical doctrines enunciated by the Court lead to the conclusion that government may not regulate sexually intimate consensual relationships. In our federal system, governments indisputably have done so for two centuries in a variety of ways that seem to have gone, until more recent times, utterly unquestioned. While bright lines in the law of privacy are difficult for the most earnestly conscientious judges to discern, the teachings and doctrines which we thus far have to guide our way in this troubling area suggest that the result here is entirely correct — a result that can be reached without resort to a single dissenting opinion from one or more members of the Supreme Court concerned by the legitimacy of creating judge-made rights, as opposed to rights clearly and broadly enumerated at the Founding. Goldman v. Secretary of Defense, 739 F.2d 657 (D.C.Cir.1984) (Starr, J., dissenting from denial of suggestion to hear case en banc).