The Right To Privacy [Hardcover]

Caroline Kennedy (Author), Ellen Alderman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1995

In what is certain to be one of the most talked-about books of the year, Alderman and Kennedy examine one of our basic--and most contested--legal and constitutional rights: the right to privacy. Through a seamless interweaving of landmark cases, lesser-known trial decisions, and dozens of anecdotal narratives, the authors make an urgent, complicated issue more absorbing and accessible than ever before.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coauthors of In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action, Alderman and Kennedy here present a pithy and practical casebook on our shrinking right to privacy. The Fourth Amendment, protecting against unreasonable seizures, does not necessarily prevent an arrested person from being strip-searched, and the authors consider a welter of legal and ethical dilemmas involving the clashing interests of people who wish to be left alone and employers, police and the press, whose jobs may make them intrusive. The use of metal detectors and drug tests in schools and workplaces, women's right to abortion and contraception, people suing to squelch reporting by the media, patients' right to refuse further medical treatment or to undergo assisted suicide, and claims against voyeurs are among the issues and conflicts discussed. Also examined are new privacy conflicts arising in the workplace as employers, facing rising health insurance costs and increased liability for employees' actions, demand?and often obtain?more information about their workers. 100,000 first printing; BOMC selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?Stories of individuals who have gone to court to protect their privacy rights are divided into six legally recognized interests. Extensive notes provide legal citations and, where appropriate, additional commentary. Students may be surprised by the limits of privacy rights, the variations in the law from state to state, and the differences in verdicts among seemingly similar cases. Readers may well be riveted to such narrations as that in Cooper v. Anderson (17-year-old Jeff Cooper's friends videotaped him having sex with Debbie Anderson, 19, without Anderson's knowledge or approval). Routine strip searches of women accused of such minor offenses as traffic tickets, right-to-die decisions, ownership of frozen embryos, drug interdiction, televised death, a school administrator's search of a student's pocketbook, and a forced Cesarean section performed on a terminally ill patient against the wishes of her family are all of likely interest to older students. Teachers may effectively choose excerpts to illustrate or elicit discussions. Students may find topics for further research, seek to clarify or advance their legal understanding, or just dip in for the stories.?Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 405 pages
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; 1st edition (October 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679419861
• ISBN-13: 978-0679419860
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,867,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, Cogent, & Wonderful Overview of Right To Privacy, August 13, 2000

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Right to Privacy (Hardcover)

Today, when voyeurs, marketers, and the curious are invading so many aspects of what has traditionally been considered the individual's inviolate personal domain, this book is a God-send in helping us understand what it is we have with the right to privacy, and also in helping us to focus on what is so much at risk. While the word "privacy" appears nowhere in our Constitution, a majority of Americans fervently believe that their right to privacy is a key element which is central to the way they live their public and personal lives, and that it is also key to the viability of the democratic system. Given the fact that it is a somewhat abstract, ambiguous, and difficult idea to define, privacy is indeed seen as being a critical and irreplaceable basic right of individuals.

In this wonderful, eminently accessible, and very readable book, Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy, produce a gem of a work that offers a thoughtful, absorbing, and provocative overview of what the generally perceived (although not specifically Constitutionally defined) right to privacy means for us as citizens and individuals. Using a well-integrated series of landmark cases, trial decisions, and an entertaining plethora of anecdotal situations, the authors render this abstract, complicated, and critically important legal right much more understandable and comprehensible. As with their earlier book, "In Our Defense", Alderman and Kennedy transform the arcane legal language of various laws, regulations, and court decisions into relevant and compelling arguments that help the reader understand just how central to our basic liberties the right to privacy is.

The book examines six general areas of tension and concern regarding the right to privacy; privacy versus law enforcement, privacy and your self, privacy versus the press, privacy versus the voyeur, privacy in the workplace, and privacy versus information. In examining each of these issues, the authors engage what the right to privacy means in practical terms. For example, can one refuse to comply if a police officer asks permission to look through one's luggage? Does your employer have a right to know your sexual orientation? Can the electronic media invade your home in pursuit of a hot story? In each of these cases, they also show how the rights to privacy must be seen and understood in the context of other public and individual rights and prerogatives.

In all this cogent and compelling narrative, one hear the consistent voice of caution and reason, for the authors are mindful of the fact that we live in a society in which our individual rights as citizens and individuals are under continuing assault, and are very much under threat from other competing needs and concerns. This is an extremely thoughtful, straightforward, and an eminently compelling argument on behalf of public education and enlightened self-interest. This is a wonderful book, and one I highly recommend. Enjoy.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real people, real cases-America's right to privacy, April 7, 2000

By 

Michelle M. (Columbia, Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Right to Privacy (Paperback)

This book takes real people and cases to display the ways the right to privacy affects us in America today. The authors--one a public figure and the other not--show privacy issues dealing with the press, our body, law enforcement, the vouyer, and the work place. The authors make you think for yourself based upon decisions and cases that state and federal courts have heard in the past. I encourage anyone who is interested in their rights dealing with privacy to read this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a eye-opener, July 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Right to Privacy (Paperback)

This book should be read by anyone who is concerned about the issues that surround our rights to privacy. Alderman and Kennedy review real-life court cases to show the audience how our laws come to be. The subjects that are focused on, are the police strip-search cases, school search cases, right to die cases, right to contraception cases, and privacy in the workplace to name a few. There is also a little segment on the issues of technology (the world wide web) and privacy. Kennedy is a very qualified person to write this book, because she grew up in the media glare having very little privacy herself, and understands firsthand what it is like to have a basic fundamental right violated. The right to privacy is a very serious issue in the United States. Alderman and Kennedy do a very fine job explaining how easily our basic fundamental right to privacy can be violated. I highly recommend this book as it is very easy to read and understand.