LSP 112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Premarital Sex, Equal Protection Clause
Document Summary
Facts: william baird was convicted for exhibiting contraceptives and for giving a woman contraceptive foam at the close of a lecture to students on contraception. Massachusetts state law was: it was a felony to give contraceptives to anyone except: Married people, for both contraception and disease prevention. Unmarried people cannot get contraceptives for contraceptive use. The court determines that deterring premarital sex, and promoting health are not the real goals of the law. The real goal of the law is to prohibit sex outside of marriage because the legislature thought that sex outside of marriage was immoral. But the law only applies to unmarried persons, not to married people. If, under griswold, the distribution of contraceptives to married persons cannot be prohibited, a ban for unmarried persons is also impermissible. Even if griswold only meant that there is a right of privacy in the marital relationship, the right of privacy is not confined to the marital relationship.