Law Commons^™

The Great Regulatory Dodge, Helen Nissenbaum, Katherine Strandburg, Salome Viljoen

Articles

U.S. privacy law is in a renewed moment of regulatory possibility, with both Congress and the states considering sweeping consumer privacy laws. These new proposals to enact “omnibus” privacy protections could be couched as an antidote to the current U.S. privacy regime: a patchwork of sectoral privacy laws stitched atop the background of FTC consumer contract enforcement. However, this Essay maintains that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot successfully capture both privacy’s value and its variability. Yet, it is clearly the case that the present- day sectoral regime in the United States suffers from significant shortcomings. These shortcomings allow behaviors that seem …

Unprecedented Precedent And Original Originalism: How The Supreme Court’S Decision In Dobbs Threatens Privacy And Free Speech Rights, Leonard Niehoff

Articles

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has drawn considerable attention because of its reversal of Roe v. Wade and its rejection of a woman’s constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy. The Dobbs majority, and some of the concurring opinions, emphasized that the ruling was a narrow one. Nevertheless, there are reasons to think the influence of Dobbs may extend far beyond the specific constitutional issue the case addresses.

This article explains why Dobbs could have significant and unanticipated implications for the law of privacy and the law of free expression. I argue that two …