“Late every night in Connecticut, lights go out in the cities and towns, and citizens by the thousands proceed zestfully to break the law.’’
—From the March 10, 1961, issue of Time magazine on the now long gone Connecticut law banning contraceptives. In 1879, Connecticut enacted a statute that banned the use of any drug, medical device or other instrument used to prevent contraception.
In its 1965 ruling Griswold v. Connecticut, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects the liberty of married couples to use contraceptives without government restriction. The Connecticut law, they decided, violated the "right to marital privacy".
