[comp.org.eff.talk] Fundamental Right of Privacy

rogue@cellar.UUCP (Rogue Winter) (03/28/91)

   Actually, the OLD Supreme Court recognised a right of privacy, but did not 
go far enough to declare it a fundamental right.  It is an assumed right 
based mostly on the sixth, and somewhat on the fourth and fifth Amendments.  
It's greatest application was in Roe v. Wade (1973), which declared that a 
woman's right to privacy was superior to the vested interests of the state in 
most cases, and at varying times during a pregnancy.

   The fundamental right to privacy is not even believed in by the members of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee; during the confirmation hearings for Justice 
Anthony Kennedy, Senator Joe Biden asked the nominee: "Do you believe in a 
MARITAL [emphasis mine] right to privacy?"

   Kennedy answered, hedgingly, in the affirmative.  Neither Kennedy nor any 
of the Senators expended on this question to debate the existence of an 
individual right to privacy, nor the fundamental nature of these rights.

R-og
 Rache McGregor
  rogue@cellar.uucp