The State accuses Griswold and Buxton of giving a family preventative ways of not getting pregnant. Which according to a statute of Connecticut is illegal.
b. The Appellants say they were just exercising their First Amendment rights by distributing material with preventative measures to avoid pregnancy.
IV. Lower Court Opinion.
a. The lower court found them guilty as accessories and fined $100 each against the claim that the accessory statutes as so applied violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. .
b. The appellate division of the circuit court affirmed.
c. The Supreme Court of errors also affirmed.
V. Issue.
a. Griswold and Buxton are charged with being accessories to violating a statute in the Connecticut law which States, "Any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing contraception shall be fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than one year or both- Also lines 54-196 say, "Any person who assists, abets, counsels, causes, hires or commands another to commit any offense may be prosecuted and punished as the offender-.
VI. Facts.
a. Griswold and Buxton gave information, instruction, and medical advice to married persons as to the means of preventing conception.
b. They were in violation of a Connecticut statute.
c. They were found guilty and fined $100 each.
d. They appealed to the lower courts and the appeal was not granted.
VII. Holding.
a. The Supreme Court reversed the ruling.
VIII. Reasoning.
a. Although Griswold and Buxton did in fact aid in the prevention of contraception to many couples, they we well with in their First amendment rights.
b. "in other words, the State may not, consistently with the spirit of the First Amendment, contract the spectrum of available knowledge. The right of freedom of speech and press includes not only the right to utter or to print, but the right to distribute, the right to receive, the right to read and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom to teach, indeed the freedom of the entire university community.
