rights of privacy

rights of privacy, in U.S. law, an amalgam of principles embodied in the federal Constitution or recognized by courts or lawmaking bodies concerning what Louis Brandeis, citing Judge Thomas Cooley, described in an 1890 paper (cowritten with Samuel D. Warren) as “the right to be let alone.” The right of privacy is a legal concept in both the law of torts and U.S. constitutional law. The tort concept is of 19th-century origin. Subject to limitations of public policy, it asserts a right of persons to recover damages or obtain injunctive relief for unjustifiable invasions of privacy prompted by motives of gain, curiosity, or malice. In torts law, privacy is a right not to be disturbed emotionally by conduct designed to subject the victim to great tensions by baring his intimate life and affairs to public view or by humiliating and annoying invasions of his solitude. Less broad protections of privacy are afforded public officials and other prominent persons considered to be “public figures,” as defined by law.

Although the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly protect privacy, the right is commonly regarded as created by certain provisions, particularly the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures; the First and Fifth include privacy protections in that they focus not on what the government may do but rather on the individual’s freedom to be autonomous.

The rights of privacy were initially interpreted to include only protection against tangible intrusions resulting in measurable injury. After publication of an influential article by Justice Brandeis and Samuel Warren, “The Right to Privacy,” in the Harvard Law Review in 1890, however, the federal courts began to explore various constitutional principles that today are regarded as constituent elements of a constitutional right to privacy. For example, in 1923 the Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law prohibiting schools from teaching any language other than English, saying the law interfered with the rights of personal autonomy. In 1965 the Supreme Court held that the federal Constitution included an implied right of privacy. In that case, Griswold v. Connecticut, the court invalidated a law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, even by married persons. Justice William O. Douglas, writing for the court, stated that there is a “zone of privacy” within a “penumbra” created by fundamental constitutional guarantees, including the First, Fourth, and Fifth amendments. The Supreme Court extended this right to privacy to sexual relationships in 2003, striking down a Texas law criminalizing sodomy.

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The “right to be left alone” also has been extended to provide the individual with at least some control over information about himself, including files kept by schools, employers, credit bureaus, and government agencies. Under the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974, individuals are guaranteed access to many government files pertaining to themselves, and the agencies of government that maintain such files are prohibited from disclosing personal information except under court order and certain other limited circumstances. In 2001 the USA PATRIOT Act (formally, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) granted federal police agencies the authority to search the business records of individuals it suspected of involvement in terrorism, including their library records. Modern technology, giving rise to electronic eavesdropping, and the practices of industrial espionage have complicated the problem of maintaining a right of privacy in both tort and constitutional law.