commandment

Estelle Griswold served as Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut. Dr. C. Lee Buxton served as the League's Medical Director and was a professor at Yale Medical School. Together they opened and operated a center in New Haven that was open from November 1 to November 10, 1961. At the center they gave information, instruction, and medical advice to married persons as to the means of preventing conception. They examined the wife and prescribed the best contraceptive device or material for her use. Fees were usually charged, although some couples were serviced free. The statutes involved were sections 53-32 and 54-196 of the General Statutes of Connecticut (1958 rev.). Section 53-32 made it a crime to use any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception. Section 54-196 punished accessories as principals. The appellants were found guilty as accessories and fined $100 each. The Appellate Division of the Circuit Court affirmed the convictions. The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut affirmed that judgment in State v. Griswold, 151 Conn. 544, 200 A. 2d 479. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. The appellants asserted standing to raise the constitutional rights of the married persons with whom they had a professional relationship. A criminal conviction for serving married couples removes doubts about case or controversy. The rights of husband and wife would be diluted unless considered in a suit involving those who have this kind of confidential relation to them.

Open the case page for the full write-up.

In 1940 interested members of the Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant faiths formed the Champaign Council on Religious Education and obtained permission from the Board of Education of School District No. 71 to offer weekly classes in religious instruction to public school pupils in grades four through nine. Classes met for thirty minutes in the lower grades and forty-five minutes in the higher grades, were held in regular public school classrooms, and were taught by instructors employed and paid by the Council but subject to the approval and supervision of the school superintendent. Parents signed printed request cards designating the religious group their children would attend. Pupils whose parents consented were released from their regular secular classes to attend the religious instruction; pupils who did not participate were required to leave their classrooms and pursue secular studies elsewhere in the school building. Attendance or absence from the religious classes was reported to the secular teachers using the same forms used for other subjects. Illinois law required children aged seven to sixteen to attend the tax-supported public schools during regular hours unless they attended approved private or parochial schools. Vashti McCollum, a resident and taxpayer whose child was enrolled in the Champaign public schools, filed a petition for mandamus in the Circuit Court of Champaign County seeking an order directing the Board to prohibit all religious instruction in the public schools. The Board answered that the program did not violate the state or federal constitutions. After evidence was presented and findings of fact were made, the trial court denied the petition. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed. McCollum appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which noted probable jurisdiction.

Each year the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, erects a Christmas display. The display is located in a park owned by a nonprofit organization and located in the heart of the downtown shopping district. The city acts in cooperation with the downtown retail merchants' association. The display includes a Santa Claus house, reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh, candy-striped poles, a Christmas tree, carolers, cutout figures representing characters such as a clown, an elephant, and a teddy bear, hundreds of colored lights, a large banner that reads "SEASONS GREETINGS," and a crèche. The crèche, which has been included in the display for forty or more years, consists of the traditional figures including the Infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph, angels, shepherds, kings, and animals, all ranging in height from five inches to five feet. In 1973 the city acquired the present crèche at a cost of $1,365. It is now valued at $200. The erection and dismantling of the crèche costs the city about $20 per year. Nominal expenses are incurred in lighting it. All components of the display are owned by the city. Pawtucket residents who are individual members of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, together with that affiliate, brought this action in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The suit challenged the city's inclusion of the crèche in the annual display. The District Court held that the city's inclusion of the crèche in the display violates the Establishment Clause. The court found that by including the crèche the city had tried to endorse and promulgate religious beliefs. It found that erection of the crèche had the real and substantial effect of affiliating the city with the Christian beliefs that the crèche represents. The appearance of official sponsorship conferred more than a remote and incidental benefit on Christianity. Although the court acknowledged the absence of administrative entanglement, it found excessive entanglement as a result of the political divisiveness of including the crèche. The court permanently enjoined the city from including the crèche in the display. A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.