"Opposition to Kavanaugh stems from a case that was decided the year Kavanaugh was born and was argued by professors from the law school from which he graduated.
One way to look at the situation of Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court nominee awaiting a Senate vote, is as only the latest episode in the long story of Griswold v. Connecticut.
In other words, it's a story about Yale Law School.
Griswold is the 1965 case in which the Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law that had outlawed the use of contraception.
The court's opinion, by William Douglas, found a "right of privacy," reasoning in part that "specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance."
It was the basis for Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 case in which the Supreme Court struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law.
It was the basis for Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case in which the Supreme Court found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
In all three cases—Roe, Lawrence, Obergefell—the court's opinions cited Griswold extensively and relied on it.
Griswold was a Yale Law School project from beginning to end.
...People have different views on the wisdom of Griswold.
- Those who think it unwise or cruel for a state to outlaw contraceptives, abortion, gay sex, or gay marriage will celebrate the outcomes the opinion allowed.
- Others may agree with the policy effects but have concerns nonetheless about the process by which unelected justices overturn democratically enacted laws, and do so not on the basis of the Constitution's text but rather on "penumbras, formed by emanations."
- Some people may dislike both the process and the outcome.
The number of those people, the intensity of their views, and their political power partly explain why the Yalies and their successor chose the legal route rather than relying on the state legislatures..."
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