19651776 Club
Supreme Court strikes Connecticut's contraception ban; Douglas finds privacy in the Constitution's "penumbras"
Seven justices rule that married couples may use contraceptives without government intrusion, though the majority's reasoning draws immediate scorn and praise in equal measure.
Connecticut had maintained since 1879 a law making it a crime to use contraceptives — or to assist anyone in using them — punishable by fine or up to a year in jail. On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court struck it down 7–2, ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut that the Constitution protects a married couple's right to use contraception without government intrusion. Justice William O. Douglas, writing for the majority, located that right not in any single amendment but in the "penumbras" and "emanations" of several Bill of Rights guarantees — language both celebrated and ridiculed ever since…
