Volu m e I - Purdue University Calumet

declared judicial supremacy.
“…The federal judiciary is supreme in the exposition of the law of the
Constitution” (Cooper v Aaron). The Court in its finding even used Marshall’s own words to support this
assertion, “If the legislature of the several states may at will annul the judgments of the courts of the United
States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution its becomes a solemn
mockery” (Cooper v Aaron). As the Court quoted Marshall on something he believed firmly to show the
importance of its supremacy; Marshall knew there was nothing within his power as Chief Justice to make
the states adhere to his rulings rather he must rely on the other two branches.
In Griswold v Connecticut (1965) the question before the Court was, can a state make it illegal for
a married couple to obtain contraceptives? The Courts answer to this question was no a state could not
make a law criminalizing the use of contraceptives amongst married couples. The Court in the majority
opinion created a right to privacy. Justice Douglas in the majority opinion used five different amendments
to support the majorities claim for a Constitutional right to privacy. Douglas says, “Specific guarantees in
the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and
substance. Various guarantees create zones of privacy” (Griswold v Connecticut). The various amendments
Douglas used to show these zones of privacy are the: First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments.
Douglas believed the right to privacy was embedded in each of these amendments. For example the First
Amendment guarantees the right to association, but in order to have an association you must have the right
to privacy. Or for the Third Amendment a person has the right not to quarter soldiers in his home, but in
order to maintain this right there must be a right to privacy of the home. And this pattern continues for the
other amendments. The Ninth Amendment on the other hand is a tad bit different as it does not have any
specific rights listed, but rather protects people from government denying them a right, because it is not
listed, and for Justice Douglas the right to privacy is one of those rights.
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