The Right to Privacy

Griswold v. Connecticut 381 U.S. 479 (1965)

The Court ruled that there is an implicitly protected "right to privacy" in the First, Third and Fourth Amendments,
in conjunction with the Ninth Amendment.  The Court struck down a Connecticut law that prohibited doctors from providing
contraceptives to their patients.

Applications of the right to privacy

• Abortion
  
  

  Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

  The Court ruled the right to privacy extended to a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy without government intrusion.
  Established a trimester standard in which the state had varying levels of "compelling interest" to regulate abortion.
  
  
  

  Webster v. Reproductive Health Services 492 U.S. 490 (1989)

  The Court upheld a number of state regulations regarding access to an abortion, including:

  • a ban on the use of public employees or public facilities in performing abortions unnecessary to save the mother's life;
  • a ban on counseling to have an abortion; and
  • a requirement that doctors perform viability tests upon women past their 19th week of pregnancy.

  This opened the door for states to further regulate access to an abortion.
  
  
  

  Planned Parenthood v. Casey 505 U.S. 833 (1992)

  The Court reaffirmed Roe, but it upheld a number of regulations in Pennsylvania law.
  The Court established an "undue burden" test in which a regulation on access to an abortion must not present
  "a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability." In this case,
  the Court upheld a number of regulations, including informed consent with a 24 hour waiting period, and a parental
  consent requirement , but not a requirement of a husband's consent.
  
  
  

  
  
• Sexual Privacy and Sodomy Laws
  
  
  Bowers v. Hardwick 478 U.S. 186 (1986)
  The Court upheld a Georgia law that banned sodomy.  The majority argued that the right to privacy established in Griswold did not
  a right to engage in homosexual sodomy, stating that such a right was not "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty."
  
  
  Lawrence v. Texas 539 U.S. 558 (1986)
  The Court overturned Bowers, stating that the previous Court had too narrowly defined the liberty interest. They held that the Texas sodomy
  law at issue in the case "furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual."
   All remaining state sodomy laws were thus invalidated by the Court's decision in this case.