Do we have a constitutional right to privacy? Since 1965 the U.S Supreme Court has built a trail of case law saying a right to privacy is enshrined in the concept of “liberty” in the Fifth Amendment (“nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”).
The 1965 case that started this trail going was Griswold v. Connecticut, which said people’s right to privacy protects against government prohibition of their use of contraception in their home.
Thanks to a review of my book Noise Wars
The case was Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak and involved the piping-in of commercial radio on a commuter train in Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s. People objected to being made a captive audience to media that they couldn’t ignore or tune out, but the court ruled that riders had given their tacit approval of the media by boarding the train.
In his dissent, Douglas said many people had no choice but to take the train. But, more fundamentally, the force-feeding of content that people can’t ignore constitutes a violation of their liberty, which includes their right to privacy.
Douglas’ dissent is essential reading for anyone concerned about the proliferation of captive-audience media, but the fact remains that he failed in his attempt to enshrine the idea of privacy as a subset of our right to liberty in the case.
But he did succeed about a decade later, in Griswold, and as the reviewers at Legal Legacy say, it’s an interesting question to look at how the post-Griswold right to privacy interacts with the idea of audience captivity.
The Supreme Court has already said that government has the right, without violating people’s right to free speech, to regulate the force-feeding of intrusive content. That right was established a few years prior to the commuter train case when the Supreme Court in Kovacs v. Cooper said it was OK for a city to impose a ban on audio trucks (trucks that drive around blaring audio content from a speaker).
Thanks to Legal Legacy for such a thought-provoking review of Noise Wars.
#1 by Steven Roll - January 29th, 2010 at 07:12
Many would dispute the notion that there is actually a right to privacy contained in the U.S. Constitution. (I suspect some of whom are sitting as Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court).
When it comes to privacy we have fewer rights than you would imagine. One of the best books out there on the subject is “The Right to Privacy” by Caroline Kennedy and Ellen Alderman. It’s a series of true-life case studies where public policy clashes with personal privacy.
It recounts routine strip searches of women accused of such minor offenses as traffic tickets, right-to-die decisions, ownership of frozen embryos, drug interdiction, televised death, a school administrator’s search of a student’s pocketbook.
It was written over 10 years ago, but it seems to become more relevant with each passing year.
On another topic, the idea of treating corporations as individuals dates back to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Conceived as a means of giving equal rights to former slaves, industry interests quickly won judicial decisions establishing that the constitutional provision extended to corporations soon after it took effect.
An interesting documentary called “The Corporation” covers this.
#2 by R. Freedman - January 29th, 2010 at 08:13
Thanks, Steve. Points well taken. I agree a lot of people wonder if the Supreme Court stretched when it connected a right to privacy with liberty. Privacy is definitely not something we can take for granted, unfortunately.
#3 by Emily - May 31st, 2010 at 20:16
Many would dispute the notion that there is actually a right to privacy contained in the U.S. Constitution. (I suspect some of whom are sitting as Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court).
When it comes to privacy we have fewer rights than you would imagine. One of the best books out there on the subject is “The Right to Privacy” by Caroline Kennedy and Ellen Alderman. It’s a series of true-life case studies where public policy clashes with personal privacy.
It recounts routine strip searches of women accused of such minor offenses as traffic tickets, right-to-die decisions, ownership of frozen embryos, drug interdiction, televised death, a school administrator’s search of a student’s pocketbook.
It was written over 10 years ago, but it seems to become more relevant with each passing year.
On another topic, the idea of treating corporations as individuals dates back to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Conceived as a means of giving equal rights to former slaves, industry interests quickly won judicial decisions establishing that the constitutional provision extended to corporations soon after it took effect.
An interesting documentary called “The Corporation” covers this.
#4 by R. Freedman - June 3rd, 2010 at 09:41
Good points. Thank you!