Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), was a landmark case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Constitution's Bill of Rights protected a married couple's right to privacy, and that therefore Connecticut's anti-contraception laws were unconstitutional.
Connecticut's anti-contraception laws, passed in 1879, banned the use of any drug, medical device, or other instrument to prevent conception. In 1961, Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood in New Haven, decided to challenge the law. She, with Dr. C. Lee Buxton, opened a birth control clinic in New Haven. They were arrested and convicted for dispensing contraceptives, and ultimately appealed their case to the US Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Griswold's appeal. The Court's opinion stated that while privacy in general is not specifically protected by the constitution, there are protections within the Bill of Rights that establish the right to privacy.
Sexual Injustice : Supreme Court Decisions From Griswold to Roe
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LibGuides: "Focusing on six major Supreme Court cases during the 1960s and 1970s, Marc Stein examines the generally liberal rulings on birth control, abortion, interracial marriage, and obscenity in Griswold, Eisenstadt, Roe, Loving, and Fanny Hill alongside a profoundly conservative ruling on homosexuality in Boutilier. In the same era in which the Court recognized special marital, reproductive, and heterosexual rights and privileges, it also upheld an immigration statute that classified homosexuals as "psychopathic personalities." Stein shows how a diverse set of influential journalists, judges, and scholars translated the Court's language about marital and reproductive rights into bold statements about sexual freedom and equality."
Griswold V. Connecticut : birth control and the constitutional right of privacy
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