The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of a right to privacy. Should it be amended to affirm such a right? If so, how should the amendment read?
Answers
Answer:
There is no right to privacy. (1) You can be forced in a civil case to disclose where all your assets are -- so they can be seized. (2) The right to remain silent exists only in criminal investigations.
The closest you can get to privacy is disclosed in several Supreme Court cases:
Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U.S. 447, 479 (May 26, 1894):
"Neither branch of the legislative department, still less any merely administrative body established by congress, possesses, or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen.”
Boyd v. U.S., 116 U. S. 616, 630,
“The principles laid down … apply to all invasions on the part of government and it's employees of the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of his life.”
The Supreme Court even quoted (in Boyd, 116 US 616) an old English court case as the received law of the land, stating that a law officer cannot step onto your property, though the damage be none, for fear of bruising the grass.
In Re Pacific Railway Commission, 32 Fed. 241, 250, "of all the rights of the citizen, few are of greater importance or more essential to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves, not merely protection of his person from assault, but exemption of his private affairs, books, and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. Without the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value."
Hale v. Henkel, 201 US 43, at page 74
" The individual may stand upon his constitutional rights as a citizen. . . Among his rights are a refusal to incriminate himself, and the immunity of himself and his property from arrest or seizure except under a warrant of the law. He owes nothing to the public so long as he does not trespass upon their rights... An individual may lawfully refuse to answer incriminating questions unless protected by an immunity statute."
Yeager v. Hackensack NJ, 615 F.Supp 1088:
"Right to be free from compelled disclosure of names of household members is within right of privacy protected by Constitution."