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Griswold Vs. Connecticut Case Study

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As the United States began to abandon its isolationist policies during its participation in World War II, the exposure to the effects of totalitarianism on populations of other nations caused US citizens to value their privacy more, which made the American society become intent on limiting the powers of government in private matters. In the US, the right of privacy was never considered until the 20th century; “privacy” is a term never found in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights (Johnson 54-55). Yet, after the occupation of France in 1940, the US left its “cocoon of isolationism” and was exposed to the world (Gleason 150). By the mid 1930s, the concept of totalitarian government and its control over individuals became familiar to the English-speaking …show more content…

Connecticut, which reflected the more liberal views of sexuality as shown by the decision and the public reaction to the ruling. In order to overturn the anti-contraception law of Connecticut, advocates of family planning and Estelle Griswold decided to illegally open a birth control clinic. On November 10, 1961 Estelle Griswold and Dr. Buxton, a doctor in the clinic, were arrested and the clinic was closed (Graham “7-to-2”). They were each fined $100, but they appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming that the statute deprived patients of free speech and liberty; the Supreme Court agreed to review the Connecticut statute on birth control for the third time (“Connecticut’s Ban”). In a 7-to-2 ruling, the Supreme Court invalidated the Connecticut law banning contraception on June 7th 1965 (Graham “7-to-2”). Justice Goldberg, in his concurrence of the ruling, stated that “Connecticut’s birth control law unconstitutionally intrudes upon the right of marital privacy” (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965). The main argument for the unconstitutionality of the law was that it violated the right of privacy; however, privacy is never mentioned in the Constitution. In Justice Douglas’ opinion, he states: “we deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights” and that “the First Amendment has a penumbra where privacy is protected from governmental intrusion” (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965). Douglas and the other Justices who deemed the Connecticut statute unconstitutional did not explicitly cite the Bill of Rights for their reasoning, but rather the belief in privacy as a fundamental right, something developed by the globalization and fear of totalitarianism. Their decision shows how the exposure to other societies allowed for the basis to overturn the Connecticut law on birth control. The concurring justices protected privacy,

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