• Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
• Loving v. Virginia (1967)
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
• Turner v. Safley (1987)
• Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

• Original intent
• Children's safety
• God's will
• Judicial review
• Scientific/biological basis
• Tradition (of prior court case decisions)

Author: Rosenfeld

Definition: The notion that the family is there only to keep people in line, which is why in colonial times, it was the law for you to be in a family, because their rules keep you in check.

Deeper analysis: Family is there to oversee and look after you. Co-residence with family is what it was about. Nobody go to live on their own and, therefore, were very restricted with mate choice, it didn’t allow for geographic mobility, etc. 

Author: Rosenfeld

Definition: Time when not living with family but haven’t settled down yet (i.e., college)

Deeper analysis:  Being free from family government allows young adults in the independent life stage to do other things.

The independent life stage also allows for the things that family government restricted (a broader mate choice, because family wasn’t there to say no to a potential spouse, geographic mobility, because without a family or someone to live with, you are able to pick up and move wherever you want)

Author: Rosenfeld

Definition: Change in opinions and attitudes due to older cohorts dying off.

Deeper analysis: Can lead to social change if older cohorts and newer ones have different views

This explains average change without the individual having to change their opinions and attitudes

Definition: This is an act stating that same-sex marriage is not recognized by the federal government or other states that do not recognize same-sex marriage, even if you were married in a state where same-sex marriage was legal 

Deeper analysis: Was drafted in anticipation of the Baehr v. Miike case in Hawaii

Definition: Contraceptives

Story: Law against birth control for married couples

Head of Planned Parenthood got arrested for giving contraceptives to married couples

o   Because the law was outdated (new technology preventing birth control from being harmful), she had a hard time actually getting arrested for this

o   Law was not really enforced but Griswold wanted to deem it as unconstitutional, which is why she took it to court

Decision: The Supreme Court decided married people have the right to privacy in their own home and could, therefore, no longer deem this law as constitutional

Deeper analysis: -      This created privacy law tradition (some conservatives may say “out of thin air”) 

Decision: Overturned bans on interracial marriage in all states

Deeper analysis: Helped establish marriage as a fundamental right (for heterosexual couples)

Controversy: Influential because the states that banned interracial marriage fought hard to keep that law

Arguments against interracial marriage (6)

 Original intent

Fourteenth amendment had been adopted by states that had laws against racial intermarriage at the time of adoption

Defense of tradition

Laws against interracial marriage had been upheld many times in different jurisdictions

Judicial review

Some of the founding fathers intended the court to act as a balance, not to give judges the right to overturn laws passed democratically

The scientific and biological basis

Blacks biologically inferior, will be a threat to the racial integrity of white America.

God’s will

People believed that god made the races separate and it should be kept that way

Protecting the children

From the harm and confusion of being in an interracial family

Definition: sodomy laws

Story: Gay man convicted of relations with another man (on false warrant)

Court Decision: Conviction upheld in the Supreme Court

Story: Gay man convicted of relations with another man (on false warrant, call from boyfriend that Lawrence was cheating on, saying that there was a weapons disturbance in Lawrence's appartment)

Court decision: This time, the Supreme Court overturned their decision (something they don’t usually do) and deemed the ban on sodomy unconstitutional 

Deeper analysis: They decided that privacy rights extend to consenting adults wishing to have sex in their own home, not just married couples in their own home

This decision swept aside anti-sodomy laws

Definition: first trial of same-sex rights

Story: Court had to meet highest standard of evidence for why they had to deny same-sex couples the right to marry

State said same-sex marriage a detriment to raising children; wanted to protect children

Decision: Ruled that the state did not show sufficient evidence banning same-sex marriage

The ban was lifted

Deeper analysis: Created a huge backlash, provided impedance for the enactment of DOMA (to prevent these same-sex marriages from being federally recognized, or recognized in other states that didn’t want to recognize same-sex marriage)

Motivated other statutes and constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions at the state-level

Controversy: However, Hawaii just recently passed another law allowing same-sex marriage

Definition: Gay marriage

Court decision: Allowed same-sex couples to be married in Massachusetts

Definition: Interracial marriage

Court decision:  First of state cases overturning bans against interracial marriage

Deeper analysis: Set a precedent for other states to overturn bans against interracial marriage

Definition: Same-sex marriage in California

Court decision: Prop 22 deemed unconstitutional (May 2008)

Controversy:  (November 2008) Prop 8 passed, amending the constitution, saying that the constitution said that marriage is between a man and a woman

Definition: Property rights and same-sex marriage

Story: Gardiner was a big donor to a college

He met a female professor who had her sex changed from male to female legally in her home state (Wisconsin)

They got married and then Gardiner died without a will

Gardiner’s children from his first marriage said Kansas didn’t recognize same-sex marriage or gender transitions and therefore she wasn’t the sole heir of Gardiner’s property

Court decision: The Supreme Court ruled that the marriage was, in fact, invalid

Definition: Right to marry

Story: Turner was in jail and wanted to get married but was denied

Court decision: The court said that marriage is such a fundamental right that even prisoners can marry

Deeper analysis:  While they don’t have the right to freedom, or to vote, they can still get married, because it is such a fundamental right

This may have led to ways of thinking about marriage for everyone, not just heterosexual couples

Definition: Tried to overturn Prop 8

Court decision:  Acknowledged legality of Prop 8 but didn’t nullify licenses for same-sex couples married when Prop 22 overturned

Court decision: Prop 8 overturned because it violated US constitution protections, same-sex marriage became legal again. However, they held off from allowing gay marriage in California until they heard the decision from the US Supreme Court

Deeper analysis: Appealed and went to Supreme Court: Hollingsworth v. Perry (2013) and said that the decision in the lower court was still standing

Definition: Studied sexual behavior in the US

Deeper analysis:  Revealed that people were more sexually active than the public would have liked to believe

The Kinsey Scale: 0-6 0 being strictly heterosexual 6 being strictly homosexual (x being added later by associates for asexual)

He made this because he believed that there was a spectrum of sexualities, not just homosexual or heterosexual

The Kinsey Reports, which led to a storm of controversy, are regarded by many as a precursor to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.

Definition: Father of psychology

Saw women as passive and receptive

Deeper analysis: Friedan said this was unfairly brought forward to justify why women should be at home

Author: Rosenfeld

Definition: 3 nights of riots between patrons of Stonewall bar in Greenwich, Connecticut and the police

Deeper analysis: Created a rebellious gay culture

Seen as one of the starting points of gay rights

Every June during pride week, we are celebrating this event in history

Author: Friedan

Definition: Meeting of men and women for women’s rights, talking against coverture, and discussing more rights

Deeper analysis: First-wave feminism

 Friedan used to disprove pre-conceived notions about feminists being man-hating hags

Author: Friedan

Definition: Idea – Talcott Parson

Because family structure exists, it is functional

Deeper analysis: This meant that social life was inherently conservative

Friedan said that this is wrong because it doesn’t incorporate the possibility that things could change, as they already have from Talcott Parson’s time.

Incomplete Institutionalization of Step Parenthood

Author: Cherlin

Definition: The notion that there are no social norms around step-parenthood (what to call the stepparent, how to act around them, etc.)

Deeper analysis: Cherlin thought that there would be more conventions around step-parenthood however, now there are not

Explains why there is more divorce in marriage

Definition: Conservative legal doctrine: we should interpret the constitution in the way the drafters of the constitution originally intended it

Deeper analysis: Used in court cases to defend reasoning (Loving v. Virginia, gay rights, etc.)

Author: Cherlin & Moynihan

Definition: Woman is the strong leader in the family; whether it’s the mother, aunt, grandmother, etc.

Deeper analysis: Black vs. white family structure, extended vs. nuclear

Moynihan doesn’t consider extended part

Moynihan looked at if the matrifocal family and the patriarchal family could be equally as successful

Author: Friedan

Definition: Old English Law stating that once a woman marries, she assumes her husband's identity and has no property of her own

Deeper analysis: Friedan said this helped develop patriarchal marraiges (for whites)

Definition: Abortion 

Story: Jane Roe (pseudonym) desired but could not obtain an abortion in Texas because of laws against it

However, these laws were made when abortion was something that resulted in death more often than not, because of lack of proper technology

Therefore, the state could no longer claim it was “protecting women’s health” by making abortion unavailable

Court decision: The Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting first- and second-trimester abortions were unconstitutional and an infringement on privacy rights of women

Deeper analysis: The decision of this case set narrow standards for the states to allow prohibiting the abortion (in terms of stage of pregnancy and maternal health)

The decision was so specific that nearly all of the states’ abortion laws had to be rewritten in order to comply with the new standards set by the decision