The Right to Privacy and American Law

In his dissenting opinion in Griswold v. Connecticutl Mr. Justice Black berated the majority for discovering and applying a constitutional to privacy. His reading of the Constitution failed to uncover any provision or provisions forbidding the passage of any law that might abridge the of individuals. Therefore, he would have upheld a Connecticut act prohibiting the use of, or the giving advice concerning the use of, contraceptive devices. If Justice Black had examined state constitutions he would have found them similarly devoid of specific references to a to privacy. In private law, there are statutes and court decisions that protect various aspects of and human dignity, frequently under property or contract concepts, but until very recent times these have not been viewed by the public or most legal commentators as spelling out a comprehensive to privacy.2 The only explicit recognition of a to privacy has been found in certain torts cases, dating from the first decade of this century and following the suggestion of the famous Warren and Brandeis article.3 The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the varied legal strands which, taken together, are beginning to form the structure of a modern right to privacy, the potential significance of which greatly exceeds the sum of meanings of the various separate legal and duties that are today catalogued under the rubric to privacy.4 Since all of law and all rights in law represent authoritative efforts to define and influence the relationship of one or more persons or classes of persons to other individuals, groups, or classes, we must examine as a series of legal claims