The appellant, Mr. Norris, complained against the laws in Ireland which criminalized consensual homosexual acts (the impugned provisions). The applicant was a gay Irish citizen and gay rights advocate who claimed to suffered deep depression and loneliness arising from his inability to express his sexuality. He gave evidence of certain health and other detrimental effects …Read more

The respondent had an accident and suffered a head laceration. A police officer drove the respondent to the hospital where the doctor collected free-flowing blood for medical purposes from the respondent who was unconscious. He gave the blood to a police officer who did not have a search warrant or patient consent. The patient was …Read more

The Multnomah County Medical Society (the Medical Society) filed an action under § 552 of the Freedom of Information Act 1966 (FOIA) to compel James Scott, the deputy administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) tasked with the administration of the State Medicare program, to disclose the names and addresses of all Medicare beneficiaries …Read more

Respondents, including Pennsylvania physicians, abortion counselors and providers, brought this challenge to provisions of Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act 1982 (the Act). The Act imposed the following conditions on the provision of abortion services in Pennsylvania: 1.     The informed consent provision (§ 3205) required women to be informed of: The name of the physician performing the …Read more

This case has been overruled by Lawrence v. Texas. The respondent, Hardwick, alleged that a Georgia state law prohibiting sodomy was unconstitutional. In 1982, the respondent was charged with violating a Georgia statute that prohibited sodomy after committing that act with another individual in the bedroom of the respondent’s home. The District Attorney later dropped …Read more

Respondent, Lee, was charged with attempted robbery, malicious wounding, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The Commonwealth of Virginia sought to compel Respondent to undergo a surgical procedure to remove a bullet lodged in his chest; petitioners alleged that the bullet would provide evidence of Respondent’s guilt or …Read more

The applicant, a father of a mentally handicapped woman, found himself unable to institute criminal proceedings against an individual who had sexually assaulted his daughter due to a gap in the domestic criminal laws of the Netherlands, which required the victim to file the complaint herself. Although the victim was more than sixteen years of …Read more

The Appellant, H.L., brought this class action suit challenging a Utah law which required a physician to notify, if possible, the parents or guardian of a minor upon whom an abortion was to be performed. H.L. represented a class consisting of unmarried minor women who wished to terminate their “unwanted pregnancies” but were unable to …Read more

The Appellant, an obstetrician gynaecologist, brought suit challenging the constitutionality of a Virginia statute, which required second-trimester abortions to be performed in a licensed hospital. The Appellant instituted these proceedings after he was indicted for unlawfully performing an abortion during the second trimester of a pregnancy outside of a licensed hospital. The Appellant performed an …Read more

During a police search of Applicant Dudgeon’s home on suspicion of drug activity, personal property, including correspondences and diaries describing same-sex sexual activity, was seized. Dudgeon was subsequently taken to a police station and questioned extensively about his sexual life. The prosecutor considered but eventually declined to prosecute Dudgeon under a statute prohibiting “gross indecency” …Read more

The Respondent, McRae, a Medicaid recipient seeking an abortion, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Hyde Amendment’, which prohibited federal reimbursement under the Medicaid system for some abortions which were medically necessary. As established by an amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act in 1965, the Medicaid system …Read more

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) began a health hazard evaluation of a Westinghouse Electric Corporation plant in Pennsylvania after receiving a request from an authorized union representative from Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Physicians and an industrial hygienist employed by NIOSH did walk-through inspections of the plant. The inspecting physicians suspected that the …Read more

This case was an appeal by the State of Colorado (“Colorado”) and Colorado prison officials, challenging an order from the Colorado Federal District Court directing the State of Colorado to close the maximum security unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City (“Old Max”). Inmate Fidel Ramos filed a complaint alleging that the conditions …Read more

Applicant, a gay man, brought a complaint before the Commission alleging that laws criminalizing male homosexual conduct in Northern Ireland constituted unjustified interference with his right to respect for his private life (Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights) as well as unjustifiable discrimination on sexual grounds and residency grounds (Article 14). Due …Read more

The applicant claimed that English law violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention), after he found out that his wife was pregnant and planned to have a legal abortion without his consent. Specifically, the applicant claimed that England and Wales violated the right to life and the right to liberty and security …Read more

The Appellants challenged the constitutional validity of a Massachusetts law that required, in every instance, that the parents or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion be notified. The joined Appellants were an abortion clinic and a pregnant minor representing the class of unmarried minors in Massachusetts who had adequate capacity to give valid and …Read more

The Respondents, a licensed obstetrician and several non-profit organizations, brought suit claiming that § 5(a) of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1974 (the Act) was unconstitutionally vague. Section 5(a) of the Act required every person who performed or induced an abortion to have made a determination, based on “experience, judgment or professional competence,” that …Read more

Title XIX of the Social Security Act establishes the Medicaid program under which participating States may provide federally funded medical assistance to needy persons. Title XIX requires that state Medicaid plans establish “reasonable standards . . . for determining . . . the extent of medical assistance under the plan which . . . are …Read more

The Respondent, Population Planning Associates (PPA) was a corporation primarily engaged in the mail-order retail sale of nonmedical contraceptive devices. PPA regularly advertised its products in periodicals, and accepted and filled orders by mailing contraceptives to purchasers. The advertisements and order forms did not limit the availability of PPA’s products to persons of any particular …Read more

Petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of regulations contained in the Social Security Act (‘the Act’) of Connecticut which limited Medicaid benefits for first trimester abortions to those that are “medically necessary”. For a benefit to be paid, the regulations required the submission of a written request by the pregnant woman, a physician’s certificate of medical …Read more

The Respondents, a group of individual patients, doctors and physician associations, challenged the constitutionality of the New York State Controlled Substances Act of 1972 (‘Act’). Certain provisions of the Act required that all prescriptions for Schedule II drugs (dangerous but permissible medication) be prepared by the physician in triplicate on an official form.The completed form …Read more

In 1975, the Constitutional Court of Germany struck down a law that decriminalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The applicants claimed that the resulting amendment to the German criminal code, which criminalized abortion (except under certain circumstances) in the first trimester of pregnancy violated Article 8 (right to a private life) of the European Convention on …Read more

Plaintiff Virgil Walker filed suit against Defendant, Clovis H. Pierce, the attending obstetrician at Aiken County Hospital in South Carolina, seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief for a violation of her civil rights under the 1st, 4th, 5th 8th, 9th, 13th, and 14th amendments. Virgil Walker, an African American woman on Medicaid, went to …Read more

Petitioners brought this action against the Attorney General of Missouri, seeking to enjoin enforcement of House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 1211 (the Act), which attempted to regulate both the abortion procedure and the circumstances surrounding such procedures. Petitioners claimed the Act violated the right to privacy under the due process clause of the …Read more

Appellants were parents of children who had attended Denmark public schools until they were refused exemption from the country’s compulsory sex education lessons. The parents claimed a violation of the right to education under Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) because the alternatives to public education included costly …Read more

Petitioners brought this challenge to provisions of the Texas Penal Code, which prohibited anyone from procuring or attempting an abortion, except on “medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.” Petitioner Jane Roe was an unmarried, pregnant woman who sought to terminate her pregnancy by an abortion “performed by a competent, …Read more

Mary Doe, under a pseudonym, was a married, twenty-two year old mother living in Georgia. At the time of this case, she already had three children, two in foster care and the third given up for adoption due to her inability to provide for them. She sought an abortion from the Grady Memorial Hospital Abortion …Read more

The Respondent was convicted under chapter 272 of the Massachusetts General Laws (Crimes Against Chastity, Morality, Decency and Good Order) (the Act) for exhibiting contraceptive articles while presenting a lecture on contraception to a group of university students, and for providing a contraceptive article to a young woman after the lecture. Section 21 of the …Read more

Applicant, a stateless person with a Swedish alien’s passport, was arrested in Scotland on suspicion of committing murder in Ireland. Applicant was taken to Ireland, convicted of murder, and sentenced to penal servitude for life. Applicant claimed that his trial was “rigged and fixed” as a result of a conspiracy between the judge, his own …Read more

The Appellants, who had opened a birth control clinic, were convicted under the General Statutes of Connecticut of 1958 (the Act) as accessories in crime for providing information and medical advice on contraception and prescribing contraceptives to married individuals. The Act criminalized the use of “any drug, medicinal article or instrument” by any person “for …Read more