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What was the “right to privacy” in 1948?
It took nearly 50 years for Justice Brandeis’ ground-breaking law review article on the right to privacy to begin to widely influence judicial decisions. By 1948, though, a dozen or so states had begun to recognize the right as a part of common law.
March 2011 / 3 min.
Constitutionalizing the sanctity of the mails
Anuj C. Desai explains that the extension of the Fourth Amendment to cover postal mail, and then later to telephones, is based not so much on the inherently Constitutional nature of opening mail, but instead on the increasingly firm belief in the sanctity of the mail as expressed by Congress, legislators, and the public.
February 2011 / 2 min.
New technologies lead to new constitutional protections
The boom in transportation and communications technologies in the nineteenth century outpaced the pace of legal change. It was only through the emergence of new concerns around both privacy and confidentiality that people themselves began to realize their importance in a way never before imagined.
February 2011 / 3 min.
Law of privacy vs. confidentiality in the nineteenth century
According to Richards and Solove the “right to privacy” as we now understand it actually grew out of an earlier recognition of the right to confidentiality in certain situations. Warren and Brandeis then took this original principle of confidentiality and shifted it to focus on a newly developed right to privacy.
February 2011 / 3 min.
The telegraph and business invasions of privacy
In the late 19th century, many began to see the rise of monopolistic telegraph operators as more of a threat than the government. Against this potential eavesdropper, the Bill of Rights provided no protection.
February 2011 / 3 min.
Extending the Fourth Amendment beyond the home: Ex parte Jackson (1878)
Ex parte Jackson, which dealt with government agents opening mail in search of banned lottery materials, hints at the future Court’s ruling on wiretaps in Katz v. United States that the Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places.”
January 2011 / 2 min.
Stepping stone to Internet privacy: the telegraph
There have been four pivotal technologies that have forced modern American law and society to re-examine its notions of privacy and confidentiality.
January 2011 / 2 min.
Defamation, SLAPP, and medicine: Doctor’s Data, Inc. v. Barrett et al
Doctor’s Data filed a defamation lawsuit against Quackwatch and Dr. Stephen Barrett. Should this be considered a SLAPP lawsuit intended only to silence their critics?
January 2011 / 3 min.
Cassirer and the Enlightenment
Cassirer’s work on the Enlightenment is quite unlike many of the other works of science studies I have worked on over the last couple of years.
December 2010 / 9 min.
The 1971 Supreme Court on WikiLeaks
In a 1971 case, New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 US 713, the Supreme Court ruled against an attempt by the Nixon Administration “to enjoin the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing the contents of a classified study entitled ‘History of U. S. Decision-Making Process on Viet Nam Policy.
December 2010 / 4 min.