Today in Supreme Court History: November 1, 1961

11/1/1961: Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut opens center in New Haven, CT.

"Specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance." An ''emanation'' refers to a ray of light. During a lunar eclipse, the ''umbra'' refers to the darkest part of the shadow formed when the Earth orbits between the sun and the moon. The ''penumbra'' refers to the lighter part of the shadow, where some of the ''emanations'' from the sun are visible.

Comments

[Martinned]

Say it with me:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

And then there are those who think of the corollary:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to mean they actually exist.

[Bob from Ohio]

Privacy as part of the 9A reserved rights was abandoned because "penumbras, formed by emanations" was rightly mocked.

Its now found in the 14th amendment which was not reserved at founding.

A "right" that floats around the constitution. Very compelling.

[Commenter_XY]

I never understood why there was such flowery language. Why wouldn't a SCoTUS simply hold it is permissable under the 9th amendment and that there is no federal role?

Then the 10th would come into play, no? The states themselves could protect or restrict to whatever degree they like.

[Dilan Esper]

The answer is because Douglas wrote Griswold, and Douglas was a pretty dim bulb.

[Cal Cetín]

How should we interpret "retained"? Wouldn't that imply the people had those rights at the time of the Constitution?

[Public Quest]

Please consider using the example of a solar eclipse rather than a lunar eclipse... the penumbra in a lunar eclipse falls mostly into space having no effect. With a solar eclipse, the umbra and penumbra fall on the Earth and have a noticeable effect.

And also note (as done in the image linked below) that they are not to scale.

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/crossville-chronicle.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/a0/7a027b8c-6285-11e7-b550-ef55160d13b6/595e9663808d1.image.jpg

[Cal Cetín]

They used the example of the lunar eclipse because the Supreme Court was...barking at the moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89-MOy7Xfg