Court Case Analysis: Griswold v. Connecticut
The essay will focus on the Griswold v. Connecticut Court Case from 1965 which protected the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives
without government restriction.
Materials for review:
Supreme Court Decision – Griswold v. Connecticut
Griswold v. Connecticut summary from Supreme Court History
Maddow Blog Article on Sen. Marsha Blackburn
National Women’s Law Center Brief- 50 years after Griswold
Bill of Rights Institute – Griswold v. Connecticut
Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Personal Liberty and handouts
Answer the Questions in a well organized essay that incorporated your interpretations of reference documents and the following questions.
Key Questions:
Support or refute the Supreme Court’s ruling in Griswold V. Connecticut (1965), that the Constitution protects a right to privacy within marriage that includes
the decision to use artificial birth control.
1. Summarize the facts of the case and the principal players and laws related to the case.
2. What are the main issues in the case?
3. What is the right to privacy and how is it determined? Which constitutional amendments are referred to and why?
4. What does the court mean by zone of privacy?
5. Why is the Griswold v. Connecticut decision important?
6. What other issues are based on the precedent of a right to privacy? What cases rely on the Griswold decision?
7. Do you think the Griswold case was rightly decided? Please explain your position?
8. What are the current implications of Griswold on personal behavior, medical autonomy and the right to abortion?
Sample Solution
In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a state’s ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. The case concerned a Connecticut law that criminalized the encouragement or use of birth control. Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, doctor and professor at Yale Medical School, were arrested and found guilty as accessories to providing illegal contraception. They were fined $100 each. Griswold and Buxton appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, claiming that the law violated the U.S. Constitution. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, and Griswold and Buxton appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1965. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision written by Justice William O. Douglas, ruled that the law violated the “right to marital privacy” and could not be enforced against married people. Justice Douglas contended that the Bill of Right’s specific guarantees have “penumbras,” created by “emanations from these guarantees that help give them life and opinion.”
