Griswold v. Connecticut - Research Paper Example

Griswold v. Connecticut Outline Outline Griswold v. Connecticut Introduction Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) was an important case in which the United States Supreme court ruled that individuals has a right to privacy in their marriages. The ruling in the case was a landmark ruling in that the US Supreme Court invalidated the invalidated the Comstock law and argued that this law violated the right to privacy and denied people the liberty guaranteed to them by the constitution of the United States. The ruling also overturned the ruling of a lower Connecticut court which had denied the plaintiff the a positive ruling with regard to the case of the whether a patient should use contraceptives and whether a doctor should give advice to such a patient. Historical Background Comstock Law 1873 In 1873, the government enacted law United States of American that among other things, prohibited people, even those in legal marriages, from using any kind of contraceptive. The laws were called the Comstock Law and had been in place until 1965. The Comstock law also prohibited physicians from giving advice or suggesting to their patients the use of such contraceptives. It also had many other clauses that related to moral issues including the use of the national postal service to send erotic materials, sex toys, and any other item that may be immoral. It prevented the use of any drug for purposes of contraception and prohibited the sale of such a drug or item. This law, was never enforced and by the early 1950s, Connecticut and Massachusetts were the only states in the USA that were still having the provisions of this law in their books of law. The Comstock law was to later be challenged by many people and the public outcry was big especially in the beginning of the 20th century. Up until the court repealed the Comstock law, doctors avoided the topic such as the publications of any research in such matters. The Comstock law goes into history as one of the controversial laws in the United States that had to be revealed due to their nature and the fact they contravened the provisions of the fourteenth amendment statutes. Other famous laws include the alcohol prohibition law that was in force for only about three years and then repealed. However, what sets the Comstock law part form such other laws is the fact that this law had never been enforced and even at the time of it being challenged nearly a hundred years after it was enacted into law, no one had ben prosecuted based on this law. Margaret Sanger Sanger was a social activist who since the early 1920s tried to promote the use of contraceptives especially among the poor families. She had encountered a lot of challenges including her efforts being thwarted by the closure of the clinics that she had set up. Sanger was one of the people who at the very earliest fought this law especially on the grounds that contraceptives were a necessary part of public healthcare because many people need contraceptives. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Through the efforts of Sanger, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America was formed and the Planned Parenthood clinics were set up in the United States even amid the many challenges such as these clinics being closed by the government as court cases about them were in court. Sanger had tried her best to make sure that families, especially poor families would be able to access family planning, under her slogan, ‘Planned Parenthood” Waterbury clinic The Waterbury clinic was one of the early Planned Parenthood clinics that faced closure by the government due to court cases. The case about the clinic was one of the earliest about the family planning issues. It also provided a foundation for the Griswold case. Poe v. Ullman The Poe v. Ullman was a United States case in which the Supreme Court denied the patients a right to appeal healing sitting that the plaintiff did not have any basis to bring in the case. The court’s opinion was that the laws in Comstock Law were not a threat to personal liberty and that the lower court was justified in denying a positive ruling to the plaintiff in the case. The supermen court denied the plaintiff a positive ruling because a doctor did not have the legal interest to bring in a case for a patient. It also cited that since the law had not been enforced since it was included into law, challenging it was immature. The case had been brought to court a by a doctor in behalf of a patient and the argument of the doctor was that. John Marshall Harlan II dissenting opinion in Poe v. Ullman In Poe v. Ullman, Justice Harlan gave his dissenting opinion in which he said that in denying the appellants the chance to be heard by the supreme court, the court was denying them the right to due process. His opinion was that the way the lower courts in Connecticut had decided the case was denial of fourteenth amendments rights to the appellants. These fourteenth amendments rights he argued, included the right to life, the right to property and the right to personal liberty. Justice Harlan’s dissenting opinion in Poe v. Ullman was to later be very useful in the decision that the supreme court made in Griswold v. Connecticut as well as many other cases such as Washington v. Glucksberg. Harlan saw the decision of the Supreme Court as well as its opinion as dangerous to the liberty of people and argued that where any legislation imposed on personal liberty, the better alternative would be to consider the penumbra of the provisions of the fourteenth amendment rights. C. Lee Buxton C. Lee Buxton Was a Yale School of Medicine gynecologist which had also challenged the law prohibiting the use and sale of contraceptives or anything that would prevent conception. He had also unsuccessfully challenged the Comstock Laws and argued that it was a denial of personal liberty for people who would otherwise want to use contraceptives. Impact of the Griswold v. Connecticut The Griswold v. Connecticut case and ruling has had a very huge impact on related matters in the United States of America. The ruling in this case has been used in other important cases that regard issues for instance the right to privacy, the right to equal protection, the right to personal liberty, all of which are guaranteed in various clauses of the fourteenth amendment. The later cases that have cited both the ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut and the (Russell and Cohn 98)opinions that the court gave in the same case have extended and expanded on the opinion to interpret the laws that regard such issues. Conclusion The Griswold v. Connecticut case was a very important in the United States Supreme Court. The case and the ruling have indicated a number of issues about the united states justice system. These are as follows; The evolution of justice The court case was an important landmark and beacon in the evolution of the American justice system (McBride and Parry). Since the United States Supreme Court made the ruling on this important case, the justice system has continued to expand on the opinion of the court to expand the meaning and the penumbra of the civil rights in the United States. This case and especially the ruling from it opened a floodgate that exposed the many lapses in the American justice system that denied people personal liberty and many other personal basic rights. This case was important in opening up the justice system, and especially the courts in the United States of America to offer more liberty to people in the United States. The past of the concept of liberty The case also exposed the court systems and the American laws. It also exposes and how in so many ways they affected the liberty of individuals. The US of America has always been one of the nations where democracy has always been a priority. Historians have also credited United States of amerces as one of the oldest democracy in the world especially because the founding of the nations was based on the need for people to have personal liberty. The fact that such laws were still in force as late as in 1960s, was an embarrassment to the United States of America. However, this case and the ruling that the Supreme Court gave changed all that and since then, a lot has changed in the United States of America. The embarrassing issue is that the issue of contraceptives remains a problem in the modern USA. Although there are no laws that prohibit people from using contraceptives, there is a debate as to whether contraceptives are a necessary part of public healthcare and whether insurance covers should cover contraceptives. Many healthcare insurance providers refuse to cover contraceptives and any contraceptives procedures on the basis that this is not a healthcare need. This indicates that extra efforts need to be done in order to ensure that people can access these services when they need them. Works Cited McBride, Dorothy, and Janine Parry. Womens Rights in the USA: Policy Debates and Gender Roles. London, UK: Routledge, 2014. Print Russell, Jesse, and Ronald Cohn. Griswold V Connecticut. New York, NY: Tbilisi State University, 2012. Print. Read More