Privacy Rights

Question 1

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

Answer 1

Declared a fundamental right to privacy, at least in the marital bedroom. The court found this right within the general Bill of Rights.

Question 2

Roe v. Wade (1973)

Answer 2

Held that the Constitution protects the right of a woman to choose to terminate pregnancy prior to viability (the time at which the fetus can survive outside the womb). The court found this privacy right within the DPC.

Question 3

Planned Parenthood of SE PA v. Casey (1992)

Answer 3

PA law restricting access to abortions in various ways permitted, although Roe is affirmed in the abstract.

The majority threw away Roe’s trimester framework and substituted it for this test: the state may not place undue burdens on the right to choose to terminate pregnancy pre-viability. A law is unduly burdensome if it “has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.”

Question 4

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

Answer 4

This case is specifically about the rights of consenting adults to engage in private, sexual activity, but the core of the issue here is LIBERTY. People should be free to engage in consensual sexual activity without government intrusion.

Ultimately, individuals have a right to privacy that is firmly rooted in the DPC of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Question 5

Washington v. Glucksberg (1997)

Answer 5

Case Facts: Washington state law prohibited the “aiding” or “causing” of suicide or the affirmative act to end one’s life. The plaintiffs here argued that the DPC encompasses the right to control the manner and time of one’s death.

Majority: The court decided that the state had an interest in preserving human life and protecting vulnerable populations and did not find that physician-assisted suicide is a constitutionally protected right.