In addition to the First, Third, and Fourth amendments, the Supreme Court in various instances held that certain privacy rights hover around the most precise guarantees contained in the Bill of Rights. In numerous cases, ranging from the choice of school, language, marriage partner, the use of contraceptives, etc the Court has been consistent in implying that the Constitution protects the right to make a private choice. In Griswold v. Connecticut, Justice Douglas was emphatic that a state’s ban on contraceptives amounted to a violation of the right to marital privacy (Greene 721). Similarly, in Roe v. Wade, the court maintained that the right to privacy extended to a woman’s right to procure an abortion (Garrow 58). The import of Griswold and Roe is that privacy rights are also libertarian claims. This implies that the right to privacy is one of the liberties guaranteed to American citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment. Its identification as a liberty claim means that federal governments and states cannot violate this understanding of privacy without infringing the clause that calls for due process for the
In addition to the First, Third, and Fourth amendments, the Supreme Court in various instances held that certain privacy rights hover around the most precise guarantees contained in the Bill of Rights. In numerous cases, ranging from the choice of school, language, marriage partner, the use of contraceptives, etc the Court has been consistent in implying that the Constitution protects the right to make a private choice. In Griswold v. Connecticut, Justice Douglas was emphatic that a state’s ban on contraceptives amounted to a violation of the right to marital privacy (Greene 721). Similarly, in Roe v. Wade, the court maintained that the right to privacy extended to a woman’s right to procure an abortion (Garrow 58). The import of Griswold and Roe is that privacy rights are also libertarian claims. This implies that the right to privacy is one of the liberties guaranteed to American citizens by the Fourteenth Amendment. Its identification as a liberty claim means that federal governments and states cannot violate this understanding of privacy without infringing the clause that calls for due process for the