In 1973, the Supreme Court had ruled that the seizure by the customs of spermicidal jelly belonging to Mary McGee, a married mother of four children, had infringed her constitutional right to privacy within her marriage. The blanket ban on the importation of contraceptives could not continue. But to legislate for a general freedom to buy contraceptives would bring down the wrath of the Catholic Church and its lay organizations like the Knights of Columbanus.
