Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) Definition

A U.S. Supreme Court decision which ruled that a Connecticut law prohibiting the use of birth control was unconstitutional as applied to married couples. "The present case," said the Court, "concerns a relationship lying within the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees." (Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 485 (1965).)

Today, Griswold is understood as one of the Supreme Court's early right to privacy decisions, now grounded in substantive due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clauses. The reasoning of these decisions was called into question in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., 597 U.S. ___ (2022), the case that overruled Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).