In
"The Right to Privacy," Louis
Brandeis and Samuel Warren defined protection of the private realm as
the foundation of individual freedom in the modern age. Given
the increasing capacity of government, the press, and other
agencies and institutions to invade previously inaccessible aspects of personal
activity, they argued that the law must evolve in response to
technological change. Traditional prohibitions against
trespass, assault, libel, and other invasive acts had afforded
sufficient safeguards in previous eras, but these established
principles could not, in their view, protect individuals from the
"too enterprising press, the photographer, or the possessor of any
other modern device for rewording or reproducing scenes or sounds."
Consequently, in order to uphold the "right to one's personality" in
the face of modern business practices and invasive inventions, they
concluded that legal remedies had to be developed to enforce
definite boundaries between public and private life.
Having co-authored what
would become one of the most influential essays in the history of
American law, Brandeis remained a stalwart champion of the right to
privacy during his tenure as a member of the Supreme Court from 1916
to 1939. Thus, in his famous dissent in
Olmstead v. United States (1928),
Brandeis defined the "right to be let alone" as "the
most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized
men."
Ironically, Brandeis's long-term defense of privacy was
interwoven with strong support for government regulation of private
enterprise. Against those who viewed freedom of contract and
the pursuit of economic self-interest as aspects of individual
liberty, Brandeis consistently advocated political regulation of
working conditions and economic competition. In 1908, in
Muller v. Oregon, Brandeis wrote a
famous brief that included sociological statistics and medical
information, as well as traditional legal reasoning, that helped to
convince the Supreme Court to uphold legislation that limited working
hours for women. Later, as he was nearing the end of his
career, Brandeis stood with the minority of justices who defended the
constitutionality of legislation passed under Franklin Delano
Roosevelt's New Deal.
Go to "The
Right to Privacy" (full text)
