Roe v. Wade (1973) is the Supreme Court case that held the right to privacy, located in the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause through substantive due process, protects a woman's decision to have an abortion, striking down many state abortion bans (overturned by Dobbs in 2022).
Roe v. Wade (1973) is the Supreme Court's most famous application of an unenumerated right. The word "abortion" appears nowhere in the Constitution, and neither does "privacy." The Court reasoned that the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause protects certain fundamental liberties beyond the ones explicitly listed in the Bill of Rights. This idea is called substantive due process, and one of those protected liberties is a right to privacy broad enough to cover a woman's decision to end a pregnancy. The ruling invalidated state laws that banned abortion outright, while still letting states regulate later in pregnancy.
For AP Gov, the case matters less as an abortion ruling and more as a model of how the Court finds rights the text never names. Defenders point to the Ninth Amendment (which says people have rights beyond those listed in the first eight amendments) and to amendments that seem to assume privacy exists, like the Third and Fourth. Critics argue judges shouldn't read new rights into the document. Roe sits right at the center of that fight, which is why it lives in Topic 3.9. In 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe and returned abortion policy to the states, but Roe still shows up on the exam as the classic example of substantive due process reasoning.
Roe v. Wade lives in Unit 3 (Civil Liberties and Civil Rights), Topic 3.9 (Amendments: Due Process and the Right to Privacy) and directly supports learning objective AP Gov 3.9.A, which asks you to explain how substantive due process limits government from infringing on individual rights. The essential knowledge here is the existence of unenumerated rights, especially privacy, and the arguments justices use to defend them (the Ninth Amendment, implied rights in other amendments). Roe is the go-to illustration of that whole chain of reasoning. It's worth knowing that Roe is NOT one of the 15 required Supreme Court cases in AP Gov, so you won't be forced to brief it in an FRQ, but it's the example the CED expects you to recognize when a question describes the right to privacy in action.
Keep studying AP Gov Unit 3
Griswold v. Connecticut (Unit 3)
Griswold (1965) came first and found a right to privacy in the "penumbras" and "emanations" of the Bill of Rights, originally protecting married couples' access to contraception. Roe took that privacy right and extended it to abortion. Think of Griswold as building the foundation and Roe as building the house on top of it.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (Unit 3)
Casey (1992) kept Roe's core holding alive but swapped its trimester framework for an "undue burden" test, letting states regulate abortion more as long as they didn't block it entirely. It shows that precedent can be reshaped without being overturned.
14th Amendment and Substantive Due Process (Unit 3)
Roe's entire legal engine is the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause. The same clause powers selective incorporation in McDonald v. Chicago, so you're really looking at one amendment doing two big jobs across Unit 3.
Stare Decisis and the Federal Judiciary (Unit 2)
Roe's overturning in Dobbs (2022) is the modern example of the Court breaking with precedent. That makes Roe a perfect Unit 2 talking point about stare decisis, judicial activism versus restraint, and how a changed Court membership can change constitutional law.
Roe shows up mostly in multiple choice, usually testing whether you know which case did what. A classic stem asks which case established the right to privacy through "penumbras" and "emanations" (that's Griswold, not Roe), or how Roe's reasoning built on Griswold by extending privacy to abortion. Another common stem asks which case used substantive due process to protect the abortion decision, and that one IS Roe. No released FRQ has required Roe by name, and it's not one of the 15 required cases, but it works well as your own evidence in a SCOTUS comparison or argument essay about unenumerated rights, the Ninth Amendment, or how the Court interprets the 14th Amendment. If you use it, be precise that it rests on substantive due process and privacy, not on equal protection.
Griswold created the constitutional right to privacy, using the famous "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights, in a case about contraception. Roe applied that privacy right eight years later to abortion through 14th Amendment substantive due process. If an MCQ mentions penumbras or contraception, the answer is Griswold. If it mentions abortion or substantive due process protecting a pregnancy decision, it's Roe.
Roe v. Wade (1973) held that the right to privacy, found in the 14th Amendment through substantive due process, protects a woman's decision to have an abortion.
Roe is the textbook example of an unenumerated right, meaning a right the Constitution protects even though it never lists it by name.
Roe built directly on Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which first established the right to privacy; Griswold made the right, Roe extended it.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) modified Roe with the undue burden standard, and Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) overturned Roe entirely, returning abortion policy to the states.
Roe is not one of the 15 required Supreme Court cases in AP Gov, but it's the CED's central illustration of substantive due process in Topic 3.9.
Supporters of Roe-style reasoning point to the Ninth Amendment, which says people hold rights beyond those listed in the first eight amendments.
The Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy, protected by the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause, covers a woman's decision to have an abortion. The decision struck down many state laws that banned abortion.
No. The Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), returning abortion regulation to the states. For AP Gov, Roe still matters as the classic example of substantive due process and unenumerated rights in Topic 3.9.
No, it's not one of the 15 required cases, so an FRQ won't force you to know its facts. It appears in the CED as an illustrative example of the right to privacy, and it's fair game as evidence you bring yourself.
Griswold (1965) established the right to privacy through the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights in a contraception case. Roe (1973) extended that existing privacy right to abortion using 14th Amendment substantive due process. MCQs love testing this distinction.
The Court treats privacy as an unenumerated right, implied by amendments like the Third and Fourth and supported by the Ninth Amendment, which says people have rights beyond those explicitly listed. Substantive due process under the 14th Amendment is how courts protect those rights from state interference.