The respondents were an obstetrician/gynecologist and three reproductive health service clinics. They challenged a New Hampshire law that required minors to get parental consent before procuring an abortion on the grounds that the law did not provide an emergency health exception despite subjecting minors to significant health risks. The law only outlined an exception for the purpose of saving a minor’s life.
The plaintiff, a newspaper editor, was convicted under a Virginia law making it illegal for "any person, by publication, lecture, advertisement, or by the sale or circulation of any publication, or in any other manner, [from encouraging] or [prompting] the procuring of abortion or miscarriage." The plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of this law and argued that it violated rights protected by the First Amendment.
A federal statute established in 1873 prohibited the mailing of unsolicited pamphlets regarding contraceptives. Filing a friend-of-the-court brief, the ACLU challenged the constitutionality of this statute, alleging that it violated the First Amendment’s protection of commercial speech. Applying the test regarding commercial speech established in Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v.
The ACLU filed a petition representing Kentucky abortion providers challenging the constitutionality of a state law banning physicians from providing abortions through dilation and evacuation (“D and E”) method. The Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit found that the ban unconstitutionally burdened a women’s right to abortion. After the decision, Kentucky’s Attorney General moved to intervene, which the Sixth Circuit refused. The Supreme Court, however, decided that the Attorney General should have been allowed to intervene as a non-party.
The Court held that a policeman could not be sued under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for failing to enforce a restraining order. Jessica Gonzales was granted a restraining order against her husband during their divorce proceedings. In violation of the restraining order, Gonzales's husband took her three children, and despite repeated efforts by Jessica to have the order enforced, the police took no action. During this time, Gonzales's husband killed the couple's three children.
A Massachusetts statute made it illegal to give “drugs, medicine, instrument or article whatever for the prevention of contraception” to any unmarried person. The plaintiff, found guilty of violating the statute, challenged its constitutionality, claiming it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Court held that a statute preventing unmarried people from obtaining contraception was unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs challenged an 1879 Connecticut law, which banned the use of all drugs, medical devices, or other instruments necessary for contraception, by opening a birth control clinic in New Haven, Connecticut. The Supreme Court found that the First, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments established a right of marital privacy against state contraception regulations. As a result, the Court held that the Connecticut law violated this constitutionally established right to privacy, so the law was struck down.
