Eisenstadt v. Baird
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided March 22, 1972
Full case name:	Eisenstadt, Sheriff v. Baird
Citations:	405 U.S. 438; 429 F.2d 1398; 310 F. Supp. 951; 355 Mass. 746, 247 N. E. 2d 574;
Prior history:	Appellee William Baird convicted in the Massachusetts Superior Court under Massachusetts General Laws Ann., c. 272, 21; Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court partially overturned, Commonwealth v. Baird, 355 Mass. 746, 247 N. E. 2d 574 (1969); Petition for a federal writ of habeas corpus dismissed. 310 F. Supp. 951 (1970); Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated the dismissal with directions to grant the writ, 429 F.2d 1398 (1970);
Subsequent history:
Holding
A Massachusetts law criminalizing the use of contraceptives by single people violated the right to equal protection. United States Court Of Appeals For The First Circuit affirmed.
Court membership
Chief Justice: Warren Burger Associate Justices: William Douglas, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Majority by: Brennan Joined by: Douglas, Stewart, Marshall JJ. Dissent: Burger C. J.
Concurrence by: White J. Joined by: Blackmun JJ. Image File history File links Seal_of_the_United_States_Supreme_Court. ... Warren Burger at a press conference in May 1969 shortly after he was nominated to be Chief Justice of the United States. ... Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 - January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ... William Joseph Brennan (April 25, 1906 - July 24, 1997) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Justice Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 - December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... Byron White Byron Raymond White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) won fame both as a speedy running back and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the United States Supreme Court. ... Justice Harry Blackmun Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. ... Official portrait of Justice Powell, 1976. ... William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist and political figure, who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1972 until 1986, and as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death... Powell and Rehnquist, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. IX, XIV

Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972), was an important United States Supreme Court case that established the right of unmarried people to posess contraception on the same basis as married couples and, by implication, the right of unmarried couples to engage in procreative sexual intercourse (though not, as is sometimes argued, the right of unmarried people to engage in any type of sexual intercourse). Scotus redirects here. ...

The Court struck down a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people, ruling that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. State nickname: Bay State Official languages English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Senators Edward Kennedy (D) John Kerry (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 44th 27,360 km² 25. ... The Equal Protection Clause is a part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, providing that no state shall . ...

Case History

William Baird was charged with a felony for distributing contraceptive foams during lectures at Boston University on population control. Under Massachusetts law contraceptives could only be distributed by registered doctors or pharmacists to married persons. Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston, Massachusetts. ...

After being convicted, an appeal resulted in partial overturn by the Massachusetts Superior Court, allowing that the lectures were covered by First Amendment protections. But it affirmed the conviction under contraceptive distribution laws. Baird filed petition for federal writ of habeas corpus, which was refused by the court. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated the dismissal and remanded the action with directions to grant the writ, and dismiss the charge, reasoning that the Massachusetts law infringed on fundamental human rights of unmarried couples as guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling was then appealed to the Supreme Court, by Sheriff Eisenstadt, who had prosecuted the case, on grounds that Baird lacked standing to appeal, being neither an authorized distributor under the statute nor a single person. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the United States commonwealth of Massachusetts. ... The first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. ... In common law jurisdictions, habeas corpus, or more precisely habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, is a prerogative writ which requires the addressee to produce in court a person in its custody and justify his or her imprisonment. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States District Courts: District of Maine District of Massachusetts District of New Hampshire District of Puerto Rico District of Rhode Island The court is based at the John Joseph... Upon appeal, a court judgment can be upheld, vacated, or reversed. ... A prisoner who is denied, refused or unable to meet the conditions of bail, or who is unable to post bail, may be held in a prison on remand until their criminal trial. ... In law, standing is the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged. ...

Result

In a 6-1 decision (Justices Rehnquist and Powell were not sworn in on time to participate in the case), the Court upheld both Baird's standing to appeal and the First Circuit's decision on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause, the Massachusetts statute failing to reach the Due Process issues. The majority opinion was written by Justice William J. Brennan and joined by three other justices, William O. Douglas, Potter Stewart, and Thurgood Marshall. Brennan reasoned that since Massachusetts did not enforce its law against married couples and could not under Griswold v. Connecticut, the law worked irrational discrimination by denying the right to possess contraceptives by unmarried couples without good reason. Brennan found that Massachusetts' law was not designed to protect public health and lacked a rational basis. The Equal Protection Clause is a part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, providing that no state shall . ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ... Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 - January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ... Justice Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 - December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the United States Supreme Court. ... Holding A Connecticut law criminalizing the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. ...

Brennan held that the right of privacy recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut extended to procreative decisions made by unmarried couples as well as married couples and in so doing extended the right announced in Griswold to any procreative sexual intercourse: "If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child." This sentence is quite significant, as here Brennan is rejecting the traditional common-law view that sexual partners have no legally enforceable rights outside of a marriage contract.

Justice Douglas, concurring, argued that since Baird was engaged in speech while distributing vaginal foam, his arrest was prohibited by the First Amendment.

Justice White, joined by Justice Blackmun, did not join Brennan's opinion but concurred in the judgment on narrower grounds. White and Blackmun declined to reach the issue of whether Massachusetts could limit distribution of contraceptives to only married couples by arguing that Massachusetts had asserted an implausible health rationale for limiting distribution of vaginal foam to licensed pharmacists or physicians.

Chief Justice Burger dissented alone, arguing that there were no conclusive findings available to the Court on the health risks of vaginal foam since that issue had not been presented to the lower courts, and thus no basis for the Court's finding that the Massachusetts statute served no public health interest. Burger also held that the Massachusetts statute independently advanced the state's interest in ensuring couples receive informed medical advice on contraceptives.

Brennan's ruling recognizing rights of single people to procreate on the same basis as married couples was not immediately taken to its logical conclusion: all sex between consenting adults is constitutionally protected. Carey v. Population Services, decided in 1977, struck down a New York law forbidding distribution of contraceptives to those under 16 but failed to produce a majority opinion and thus is not widely cited. Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 rejected the claim of homosexuals to a fundamental right to engage in sodomy in part on the grounds that sodomy was not procreative. However, 2003's Lawrence v. Texas overruled Bowers and for the first time recognized a right of consenting adults to engage in non-procreative sexual intercourse. For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Holding A Georgia law prohibiting sodomy was valid because there was no constitutionally protected right to engage in homosexual sodomy. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that John Geddes Lawrence be merged into this article or section. ...

See also

• Sex-related court cases

There have been a number of cases decided by the United States Supreme Court or by the courts of the various states regarding pornography, sexual activity and what consenting adults are allowed to do in the privacy of their homes (or sometimes, in other places). ...

References

• Oyez Eisenstadt v. Baird Summary
• Eisenstadt, Sheriff v. Baird