Right to Privacy

Five times prior to the establishment of a right to privacy in 1965-Griswold v. Conn.-the Supreme Court laid the foundation for claiming this right. In 1923 they ruled that parents had the right to teach their own children a foreign language- Meyer v. Nebraska. In 1925 they ruled that parents could send their children to a private school-Pierce v. Society of Sisters. In 1942 they ruled that a person of limited intelligence could procreate-Skinner v. Oklahoma. In 1952 they ruled a person could resist "certain invasions of the body"-Rochin v. California. In 1964 they ruled that a person had the right to travel abroad-Aptheker v. Secretary of State. In addition the court twice passed on the opportunity to establish this right, once in 1943 and again in 1961. Thus when the Griswold ruling came out it was not out of the blue.

(Source: The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States 1992 edition).