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Re: Something else to worry about.
Posted By: wintermute, on host 65.189.42.201
Date: Monday, March 5, 2007, at 20:30:26
In Reply To: Re: Something else to worry about. posted by Masterwabbit on Monday, March 5, 2007, at 20:04:51:

> And which right does this shatter? I'm thinking Privacy, although that's not necessarily stated in the Constitution, merely implied.

Given that, in the 1770's, "privacy" meant "going to the privy" (which is to say, the toilet), finding an explicit right to privacy would be... odd. Like finding an enumerated right to eat.

From the link below:

Instead, the word of the day was "security," and in many ways it meant what we today mean when we say "privacy." Consider, for example, the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated...."

Similarly, "liberty" was also understood, in one of its dimensions, to mean something close to what today we'd call "privacy." The Fifth Amendment talks about how "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property..." and the Fourteenth Amendment adds that "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property...." And, of course, the Declaration of Independence itself proclaims that all "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


Link: Dear Clarence Thomas...

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