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The Warren Court (1953–69)

Privacy

In what decision did the Warren Court recognize a general right to privacy?

The Warren Court recognized a constitutional right to privacy in its 1965 decision Griswold v. Connecticut. The case involved a nineteenth-century state law that prohibited the use of birth control devices and criminalized counseling or providing contraceptives. Estelle Griswold, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Burton, the clinic’s medical director, were fined $100 each for violating the law. They contended that the law invaded people’s constitutional right to privacy.



U.S. Supreme Court justice Arthur J. Goldberg. Bob Gomel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
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