Constitutional privacy: The evolution of a doctrine

Although the right to privacy is not actually enumerated in the Constitution, over a century of common law precedent and judicial interpretation has authorized certain personal activities as being outside the scope of governmental regulation. The constitutional defense of such freedoms have been regarded as Fourteenth Amendment due process guarantees to life, liberty, and property. In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruled that proscribing the use of contraceptives to married couples was unduly burdensome. Judicial acknowledgment of the right to privacy invited further challenges which involved intensely personal situations and choices, the most controversial of which is the right to choose abortion. Roe v. Wade was the precedent setting case. A succession of subsequent cases made their way to the Supreme Court which clarified the degree of state regulation and in the process expanded the right to privacy and reproductive choice. The most recent cases changed that trend allowing states greater latitude in regulating abortion. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)