NE _____ Name:
Date:
Period:
The SUPREME COURT and PRIVACY:
Under What Circumstances Do the 9th and 14th Amendment Protections Apply?
DIRECTIONS: Read the following brief descriptions of the privacy cases that have come before the Supreme Court. Then, apply the Griswold v. Connecticut ruling (see below) to the cases to determine how you think the Court should rule. Finally, explain the actual court ruling in the space provided.
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965): in striking down a Connecticut statute that made the use of birth control devices a crime, the Court ruled that:
1) specific guarantees in the First, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments create a “zone of privacy” that is protected by the Ninth Amendment
2) by virtue of the 14th Amendment due process clause, the states must respect this “zone.” (Think of the “sponge” metaphor.)
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ABORTION
1) Roe v. Wade (1973)
Decided: January 22, 1973
Reargued: October 11, 1972
Argued: December 13, 1971
Facts of the Case
Roe, a Texas resident, sought to terminate her pregancy by abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant woman's life. After granting certiorari, the Court heard arguments twice. The first time, Roe's attorney -- Sarah Weddington -- could not locate the constitutional hook of her argument for Justice Potter Stewart. Her opponent -- Jay Floyd -- misfired from the start. Weddington sharpened her constitutional argument in the second round. Her new opponent -- Robert Flowers -- came under strong questioning from Justices Potter Stewart and Thurgood Marshall.
Question Presented: Does the Constitution embrace a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by abortion?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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2) Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
Argued: April 26, 1989
Decided: July 3, 1989
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Facts of the Case
In 1986, the state of Missouri enacted legislation that placed a number of restrictions on abortions. The statute's preamble indicated that "[t]he life of each human being begins at conception," and the law codified the following restrictions: public employees and public facilities were not to be used in performing or assisting abortions unnecessary to save the mother's life; encouragement and counseling to have abortions was prohibited; and physicians were to perform viability tests upon women in their twentieth (or more) week of pregnancy. Lower courts struck down the restrictions.
Question Presented: Did the Missouri restrictions unconstitutionally infringe upon the right to privacy or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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3) Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Argued: April 22, 1992
Decided: June 29, 1992
Facts of the Case
The Pennsylvania legislature amended its abortion control law in 1988 and 1989. Among the new provisions, the law required informed consent and a 24 hour waiting period prior to the procedure. A minor seeking an abortion required the consent of one parent (the law allows for a judicial bypass procedure). A married woman seeking an abortion had to indicate that she notified her husband of her intention to abort the fetus. These provisions were challenged by several abortion clinics and physicians. A federal appeals court upheld all the provisions except for the husband notification requirement.
Question Presented: Can a state require women who want an abortion to obtain informed consent, wait 24 hours, and, if minors, obtain parental consent, without violating their right to abortions as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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STUDENT RIGHTS
4) Vernonia School District v. Acton
Argued: March 28, 1995
Decided: June 26, 1995
Facts of the Case
An official investigation led to the discovery that high school athletes in the Vernonia School District participated in illicit drug use. School officials were concerned that drug use increases the risk of sports-related injury. Consequently, the Vernonia School District of Oregon adopted the Student Athlete Drug Policy which authorizes random urinalysis drug testing of its student athletes. James Acton, a student, was denied participation in his school's football program when he and his parents refused to consent to the testing.
Question Presented: Does random drug testing of high school athletes violate the reasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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5) Owasso Independent School Dist. No. I011 v. Falvo
Argued: November 27, 2001
Decided: February 19, 2002
Facts of the Case
Kristja J. Falvo asked the Owasso Independent School District to ban peer grading, or the practice of allowing students to score each other's tests, papers, and assignments as the teachers explain the correct answers to the entire class, because it embarrassed her children. When the school district declined, Falvo filed an action against the school district, claming that such peer grading violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). FERPA authorizes federal funds to be withheld from school districts that permit students' "education records (or personally identifiable information contained therein)" to be released without their parents' written consent and defines education records as "records, files, documents, and other materials" containing information directly related to a student, which "are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a person acting for such agency or institution.” Disagreeing with Falvo, the District Court held that grades put on papers by another student are not "education records." In reversing, the Court of Appeals found that grades marked by students on each other's work are "education records," such that the very act of grading is an impermissible release of information to the student grader.
Question Presented: Does the practice of peer grading violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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6) Board of Education v. Earls
Argued: March 19, 2002
Decided: June 27, 2002
Facts of the Case
The Student Activities Drug Testing Policy adopted by the Tecumseh, Oklahoma School District (School District) requires all middle and high school students to consent to urinalysis testing for drugs in order to participate in any extracurricular activity. Two Tecumseh High School students and their parents brought suit, alleging that the policy violates the Fourth Amendment. The District Court granted the School District summary judgment. In reversing, the Court of Appeals held that the policy violated the Fourth Amendment. The appellate court concluded that before imposing a suspicionless drug-testing program a school must demonstrate some identifiable drug abuse problem among a sufficient number of those tested, such that testing that group will actually redress its drug problem, which the School District had failed to demonstrate.
Question Presented: Is the Student Activities Drug Testing Policy, which requires all students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities to submit to drug testing, consistent with the Fourth Amendment?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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SEXUAL ORIENTATION
7) Bowers v. Hardwick
Argued: March 31, 1986
Decided: June 30, 1986
Facts of the Case
Michael Hardwick was observed by a Georgia police officer while engaging in the act of concensual homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom of his home. After being charged with violating a Georgia statute that criminalized homosexual sodomy, Hardwick challanged the statute's constitutionality in Federal District Court. Following a ruling that Hardwick failed to state a claim, the court dismissed. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, holding that Georgia's statute was unconstitutional. Georgia's Attorney General, Michael J. Bowers, appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted certiorari.
Question Presented: Does the Constitution confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in consensual sodomy, thereby invalidating the laws of many states which make such conduct illegal?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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8) Lawrence and Garner v. Texas
Decided: June 26, 2003
Argued: March 26, 2003
Facts of the Case
Responding to a reported weapons disturbance in a private residence, Houston police entered John Lawrence's apartment and saw him and another adult man, Tyron Garner, engaging in a private, consensual sexual act. Lawrence and Garner were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. In affirming, the State Court of Appeals held that the statute was not unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, with Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), controlling.
Question Presented:
Do the criminal convictions of John Lawrence and Tyron Garner under the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" law, which criminalizes sexual intimacy by same-sex couples, but not identical behavior by different-sex couples, violate the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of laws? Do their criminal convictions for adult consensual sexual intimacy in the home violate their vital interests in liberty and privacy protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? Should Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), be overruled?
How Should the Court Rule? Why?
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How Did the Court Rule? Why?
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