American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

STUDY GUIDE|^123

PRIVACY RIGHTS

E Explain why the rights associated with privacy are often controversial. Pages 116–19

SUMMARY

The term privacy rights is not found in the Constitution—
rather, it was established in a 1965 Supreme Court case—
but it may be implied in several amendments to the Bill of
Rights. The right to privacy is controversial because of the
lack of explicit language in the Constitution and the lack
of consensus on exactly what the right to privacy means. It
has remained a hot-button issue because recognition of the
right to privacy is an important facet of the contemporary
debate on abortion.

KEY TERMS

privacy rights (p. 116)

substantive due process doctrine (p. 118)

PRACTICE QUIZ QUESTIONS

12. Which of the following freedoms guaranteed in the Bill
    of Rights is thought to imply a right to privacy?
    a) right to bear arms
    b) protection against unreasonable searches

b) It was cruel and unusual.
c) It was being inconsistently applied.
d) It was racially biased.
e) It was inconsistent with international law.

c) right to secure legal counsel

d) right to request a jury trial

e) freedom of speech

13. In what case did the Supreme Court establish the right
    to privacy?
    a) Roe v. Wade
    b) Lawrence v. Texas
    c) Griswold v. Connecticut
    d) Gonzalez v. Oregon
    e) Lemon v. Kurtzman

S PRACTICE ONLINE

“Big Think” video exercise: Problems with the War on

Terror

S PRACTICE ONLINE

“Critical Thinking ” exercise: Political Process Matters—

Civil Liberties and Privacy

SUGGESTED READING

Abraham, Henry J., and Barbara A. Perry. Freedom and the
Court: Civil Rights and Liberties in the United States, 8th ed.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
Amar, Akhil Reed. The Bill of Rights. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1998.
Bondenhamer, David J., and James W. Ely, eds. The Bill of Rights in
Modern America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. New York: Random House,
1964.

Moynihan, Daniel Patrick. Secrecy: The American Experience.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998.

Posner, Richard A. Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time

of National Emergency. New York: Oxford University Press,

2006.

Pritchett, C. Herman. Constitutional Civil Liberties. Englewood

Cliff s, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984.

Schweber, Howard. Speech, Conduct, and the First Amendment.

New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2003.