The Right To Privacy

The Right to Privacy

The Right to Privacy by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy involves many different issues, from drug tests and school searches to workplace and technology issues. To make their points Alderman and Kennedy have chosen interesting sometimes maddening cases involving everything from illegal strip searches by the Chicago police to questionable workplace psychological testing. People have different reactions to these issues and Kennedy and Alderman just don't have the solution that is right for everybody. Their goal is to make people more aware of the problem, of the value of privacy and of what we risk losing. In addition, the more people that know about their rights, the better informed they are, then the more likely they are to participate in the process and in the public debate. They hope to get people thinking about these issues, especially in the area of computers and information technology, where we are at a crossroads. It's important for them to see what they have done about privacy issues in the past and decide whether that has been satisfactory or whether they want to do more.

The word “privacy” does not appear in the United States Constitution. The most explicit section of the Constitution involving privacy is the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure and has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to protect privacy. Alderman and Kennedy have taken the time to assemble an impressive collection of cases that touches on all aspects of privacy law. The authors cover cases according to the parties involved in the dispute and note which torts are involved on a case by case basis. Sections include privacy versus law enforcement, voyeurs, the press, in the workplace, of personal information, and in personal choice issues, for example abortion. Some of these cases are Davis v. Davis and Cooper v. Anderson.

Cooper v. Anderson is about a sex tape. Debbie Anderson and Jeff Cooper were teenagers. Debbie was 19 and Jeff was 17, a senior. Debbie never had sexual relations but Jeff did. Jeff would always have open house so they would meet up 8 to 10 times to have sex. Debbie was falling in love with him but he was not interested in her. He just wanted to have sexual relations with her and that’s about it.

Jeff’s friend, Kevin Baker knew what was going on with him and Debbie. Kevin had open house for the weekend so Jeff asked him if he can go over with Debbie. They set up a video camera and decided to tape them having sex. Debbie did not know about this. Kevin put the video recorder in his closet facing the bed. After this Jeff drove Debbie home and returned to Kevin’s house. There were about ten to twelve people in the house. All of his friends were watching the tape even Jeff. Then he took the tape and left. Debbie considered Jeff as a boyfriend and wanted to pursue the relationship.

Jeff and Debbie went to universities in Texas. Jeff went to the University of Texas and Debbie went to Texas State University. Debbie did not know about the video existence and the word had already spread. Jeff joined a fraternity and showed the tape to all if the brothers. After that, he showed the tape to every other fraternity. This word was spread through different fraternities. He told everybody to leave it alone. The video looked fuzzy and dark, you can barely see anything.

Debbie and her friends decided to go to a big fraternity party. Her friend Gale told her not to talk to Jeff. Gale told her about the tape and Debbie didn’t believe at first. Then she froze and was upset and hurt. She decided to confront Jeff about this and when she did he was drunk and didn’t want to hear about it. Then he apologized to her and didn’t mean to hurt her. The district attorney, Ken Burch said that the case was invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. I think that was a wrong thing to do. They should have never recorded her doing this without her permission. It’s nobody’s business for them to watch a tape, any tape involving someone’s privacy. This should have been kept between Jeff and Debbie because Debbie really liked him and it must of felt really embarrassing for her.

In Davis v. Davis the case began as a divorce action, filed Junior Lewis Davis,

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