On June 7, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Connecticut law banning contraception in the case Griswold vs. Connecticut. This landmark ruling regarding the right to privacy is cited in future significant cases, including Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973.
The court case began in 1961, when Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, a Yale Medical School professor and volunteer physician for PPLC’s newly opened birth control clinic, were arrested and convicted for violating a state law banning contraception, and helping other people use birth control. The state of Connecticut won the original case, but the Supreme Court concluded that the Connecticut law violated the 14th Amendment. A married couple’s use of contraception falls into the “zone of privacy” protected by the Bill of Rights, even if it wasn’t explicitly stated, the court ruled.
“The right of privacy which presses for recognition here is a legitimate one,” Justice William O. Douglas wrote in the majority opinion.
One of two dissenting justices, Potter Stewart, wrote that the law is “uncommonly silly” and unenforceable, and that using contraceptives within marriage is a private decision.
“But we are not asked in this case to say whether we think this law is unwise, or even asinine,” Stewart wrote. “We are asked to hold that it violates the United States Constitution. And that I cannot do.”
Connecticut’s archaic law came from circus showman P.T. Barnum, who was also a Connecticut state senator. In 1879, he introduced a bill prohibiting the distribution of information about contraception and abortion—and prohibiting the use of anything to prevent conception.
