When condoms were illegal in Massachusetts unless you were married: Bill Baird returns to the scene of the crime

The Daily Free Press reports Bill Baird spoke the other day at BU - for the first time since his arrest in 1967 for giving a condom and some contraceptive foam to a 19-year-old during a talk there.

Baird's arrest on the felony charge ultimately led to a Supreme Court ruling that began the process toward giving unmarried people the same rights in the bedroom as married couples. And it invalidated the Massachusetts laws (still technically on the books) that banned single people from obtaining contraceptives and even banned articles discussing how to obtain them.

A few months after his BU arrest, the Crimson interviewed Baird - and discussed Planned Parenthood's decision at the time not to support him:

Planned Parenthood thinks even less of Baird's recent tactics and his chances in court. In New York he was charged with distributing information and exhibiting contraceptives, and both of those actions can be interpreted as extensions of the right of free speech. But here he has been outflanked by the Massachusetts District Attorney. The charge that he gave out information on birth control, which would probably be declared a constitutional right, was dropped, and the charge that he actually distributed contraceptives was added. Planned Parenthood thinks this question lies in the gray area between individual rights and legitimate state power, and that Baird has little hope of overturning state laws.