Griswold V. Connecticut Case Analysis

Civil Liberties are laws that protect the citizens from the unjust government interference. In the United States, Civil Liberties are and were not freely granted, they are fought for and won in the Supreme Court. They determine the constitutionality of the laws passed by the state and the Federal government, a power they granted themselves with Marbury v. Madison. Through jurisprudence Americans have become more free. A significant case that has drastically effected our society is Griswold v. Connecticut. The basis of this case began with the passage of a law in 1879. This law, nicknamed the Comstock law, made the prescription of contraceptives and mailing of family planning pamphlets illegal (Prescott). This law in Connecticut was just one of many passed along this same vein that restricted the rights of women, the Comstock Law simply was the most extreme one. Absurdly, in this era women were punished in courts of law for failure to use their bodies solely as baby-producing machines. The Plaintiff in this case, Estelle Griswold, was the director …show more content…
Before Roe v. Wade, there was the 1972 case Eisenhardt v. Baird. This case extended the Griswold’s right to privacy to individuals and not just married couples (Lepore). Subsequently, Roe v. Wade was argued based on Eisenhardt. The Justices in 1973 essentially ruled in favor of Jane Roe due to the fact that the right to privacy existed and is broad enough for the right to abortion to fall under it. The Lawrence v. Texas (2003) case that decriminalized “sodomy” as it was called was won because of the Griswold decision. Furthermore, if not for Lawrence, Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that struck down same sex marriage bans, would have never made it to the courts because same sex contact would have still been illegal. It is profound that one case can snowball and become the foundation on which more and more civil liberties and rights are won and then applied to the