The Right to Privacy - Softcover

Kennedy, Caroline; Alderman, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679744347 ISBN 13: 9780679744344

Publisher: Vintage, 1997

Synopsis

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 come up against the intrusions of government, businesses, the news media, and their own neighbors. At once shocking and instructive, up-to-date and rich in historical perspective, The Right to Private is an invaluable guide to one of the most charged issues of our time.
"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

About this title

About the Author:

Caroline Kennedy is an attorney and the coauthor (with Ellen Alderman) of The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense.

Ellen Alderman is the coauthor, with Caroline Kennedy, of The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action.

From Library Journal:

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once described privacy as a right older than the Bill of Rights. The evolution in the 20th century of a recognized "right of privacy" represents spectacular growth in the areas of tort and constitutional law. Attorneys Alderman and Kennedy expand on a topic only briefly treated in their In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action (LJ 1/91). As their preface notes, privacy, although not expressly mentioned in the Constitution, is held by most people to be a basic and fundamental right and a right that is under siege today. Using a series of well-selected court cases, the authors compile a catalog of horrors that represent attacks on privacy, ranging from two-way mirrors in department store dressing rooms and law enforcement "strip" searches to lifestyle enforcement, controversies over contraception and abortion, and right-to-die cases. McLean (journalism, Western Illinois Univ.) has a somewhat familiar purpose: not only to show that Americans view privacy as a fundamental right but to explain why we attach such importance to the concept. McLean all too briefly summarizes the history and evolution of privacy and outlines some of the ways privacy is violated. For many reasons, the Alderman and Kennedy book will be preferred by most readers; by using concrete illustrations, it better defines the notions of privacy under attack in specific instances. The McLean book merely describes in summary fashion the same ideas. Alderman and Kennedy write in a highly readable style and chronicle the vigilance necessary to protect a cherished right; McLean writes in the fashion of the academy. The Right to Privacy is strongly recommended for all libraries.
-?Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma City
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679744347
• ISBN 13: 9780679744344
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432