- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
"Anyone hoping to understand the sometimes precarious state of privacy in modern America should start by reading this book."--Washington Post Book World
"Skillfully weaves together unfamiliar, dramatic case histories...a book with impressive breadth."--Time
From the Trade Paperback edition.
In what is certain to be one of the most talked-about books of the year, Alderman and Kennedy examine one of our basic--and most contested--legal and constitutional rights: the right to privacy. Through a seamless interweaving of landmark cases, lesser-known trial decisions, and dozens of anecdotal narratives, the authors make an urgent, complicated issue more absorbing and accessible than ever before.
Many years ago Judge Louis D. Brandeis defined the right to privacy as "the right to be let alone." While his summation was "eloquent in its simplicity," the authors of this useful and alarming survey note that legally "it offers no guidance at all." Indeed, because privacy is not mentioned in the Constitution, the extent to which we have a right to be let alone is open to a variety of interpretations. While a welter of state and federal statutes and judicial decisions do recognize some kinds of personal privacy as protected behavior, many other elements of our lives are not protected at all. A growing number of organizations and authorities, from our employers to the federal government, are increasingly and insistently invading our private lives and arguing that they have a right or obligation to do so. In response, more and more individuals are suing.
The Right to Privacy is a report from the battlefront. The authors, both attorneys, use recent cases and court rulings to evaluate the current state of privacy, to describe where our rights end. They consider such areas as privacy and law enforcement (under what circumstances, for instance, do police have the right to conduct a strip search?), privacy and the self (the question of privacy is, as they remind us, at the heart of the legal battles over abortion rights), privacy versus the press's right to know (how much, and under what circumstances, can the press reveal about a private individual?) and personal privacy and employers (under what circumstances can an employer be justified in asking, say, whether or not we believe in God, or what our sexual orientation is?). The authors' description of cases and rulings are models of clarity, often quite gripping. The conclusion that emerges from their careful exploration is that we are witnessing a "general erosion of privacy." Given that fact, the book is a helpful, even necessary, guide to the extent to which we can expect to be let alone, and a warning about the ways in which our right to privacy is almost constantly under assault.
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Authors' Note | ||
| Introduction | ||
| Privacy v. Law Enforcement | ||
| Joan W. v. City of Chicago: The Strip Search Cases | 3 | |
| People of New York v. Hollman: The Drug Interdiction Cases | 31 | |
| New Jersey v. T.L.O.: The School Search Cases | 36 | |
| Privacy and Your Self | ||
| From Griswold to Casey: The Contraception and Abortion Cases | 55 | |
| Davis v. Davis: The Frozen Embryos Case | 71 | |
| In re A.C.: The Forced Cesarean Case | 95 | |
| Quill v. Koppell: The Right-to-Die Cases | 127 | |
| Doe v. City of New York: The Other Constitutional Right to Privacy | 140 | |
| Privacy v. The Press | ||
| The Right to Be Let Alone | 154 | |
| Hall v. Post: The Case of an Adoption Revealed (Private Facts) | 158 | |
| Miller v. NBC: The Case of the Televised Death (Intrusion) | 176 | |
| Braun v. Flynt: The Case of the Swimming Pig (False Light) | 191 | |
| Arrington v. The New York Times Company: The Case of the Cover Photo (Appropriation) | 209 | |
| Privacy v. The Voyeur | ||
| Cooper v. Anderson: The Sex Tape Case | 227 | |
| McCall v. The Sherwood Inn: The Peephole Cases | 249 | |
| Privacy in the Workplace | ||
| Soroka v. Dayton Hudson Corp.: Psychological Testing | 277 | |
| Shahar v. Bowers: Lifestyle Monitoring | 294 | |
| Shoars v. Epson America, Inc.: High-Tech Monitoring | 310 | |
| Privacy and Information | 321 | |
| Notes | 335 | |
| Bibliography | 391 | |
| Index | 393 |
Overview
Can the police strip-search a woman who has been arrested for a minor traffic violation? Can a magazine publish an embarrassing photo of you without your permission? Does your boss have the right to read your email? Can a company monitor its employees' off-the-job lifestyles--and fire those who drink, smoke, or live with a partner of the same sex? Although the word privacy does not appear in the Constitution, most of us believe that we have an inalienable right to be left alone. Yet in arenas that range from the battlefield of abortion to the information highway, privacy is under siege. In this eye-opening and sometimes hair-raising book, Alderman and Kennedy survey hundreds of recent cases in which ordinary citizens have ...