Griswold v. Connecticut

U.S. Case Law

381 U.S. 479 (1965), invalidated a law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, even by married persons. An executive of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut had been convicted of counseling clients to use contraceptives. In overturning the conviction, Justice William O. Douglas (writing for the Court) stated that there was a “zone of privacy” within a “penumbra” created by fundamental constitutional guarantees that includes the right to personal privacy. The state of Connecticut was found to have unconstitutionally interfered with that privacy in enacting and enforcing the ban on contraception.