9th Amendment

What are the "zones" of privacy?

In his opinion, Justice Douglas stated that "zones of privacy" created by the first, third, fourth, fifth, and ninth amendments protected marital privacy → which extend to sexual privacy of both married and unmarried couples (added unmarried couples after Roe v. Wade), the right to have children, and the right to an abortion

What does the right to privacy include generally?

Includes the right to marry, the right to have children, and the right to an abortion

How do judges deal with unenumerated rights in court decisions?

In most court decisions however, the judges don't simply rely on unenumerated rights, rather find a section of the constitution where they are implicit - The most common way to do this is to say that these rights are covered under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (which states that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or process without a due process of law) and are protected as "liberty" interests.

Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

In this case, a gay man was arrested by the police (who had an expired warrant) for sodomy because the police saw him engaged in oral sex with another man in his own bedroom. In this case, Hardwick argued that his fundamental right to sexual privacy had been denied. However, the Supreme Court ruled that since sodomy was a criminal offense under Georgia law, there were no protections against his conviction in the Bill of Rights.

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

SCOTUS struck down an 1879 state law which prohibited the use of contraceptives for married couples - Idea of the penumbra, or the IMPLIED right to privacy in the constitution.

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

The Supreme Court acknowledged sexual privacy of homosexual couples and struck down a Texas law which forbid intimate sexual acts between same-sex couples. Their reasoning was that this law was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protections clause and did not treat different-sex couples in the same way. In addition, since the police officer did not have a warrant to search Lawrence's house specifically for that crime, that evidence would have been nullified and infringed upon their sexual privacy which serves as an implied liberty interest in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Where is the right to privacy listed in the constitution.

The right to privacy is NOT written explicitly in the constitution, therefore it is an unenumerated right. However, it is usually categorized as a personal liberty interest under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Unenumerated Rights

Unenumerated rights are those not specifically stated the constitution or the bill of rights (Amendments 1-9), but are still protected and apply to all citizens → implied rights The rights specifically listed in the constitution such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to trial by jury received the highest form of judicial protection However, SCOTUS has also recognized certain unenumerated rights that are not specifically listed in the Constitution. These rights include the right to travel, the right to vote, and the right to privacy.

Roe v. Wade (1973)

the Supreme Court ruled that sexual privacy also applied outside of marriage. This implied "privacy" is broad enough to encompass a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.