Privacy Law Commons^™

Online Terms Of Service: A Shield For First Amendment Scrutiny Of Government Action, Jacquelyn E. Fradette

Notre Dame Law Review

Part I of this Note will canvas popular opinions and perceptions about First Amendment rights on the Internet using examples of public outcry over recent instances of speech limitation. It will also discuss the state action doctrine generally and how the presence of this doctrine most likely renders certain popular public constitutional intuitions about the First Amendment erroneous.

Part II will provide an overview of how courts have taken an expansive and protective view of private ordering between online parties. It will discuss how courts have developed a robust freedom to contract jurisprudence in the Internet context. Because courts essentially …

Politics And The Public’S Right To Know, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

Journal Articles

In the United States it is taken for granted that members of the public should have access to information about their government. This access takes many forms, including the ability to obtain copies of government documents, the ability to attend meetings of government officials, and the related obligations of government officials to document their activities and to reveal certain otherwise private information about themselves. This access also is often limited by countervailing concerns, such as the privacy of individual citizens and national security. Nevertheless, the presumption both at the federal level and in every state is to provide such access. …

Private Law In The Gaps, Jeffrey A. Pojanowski

Journal Articles

Private law subjects like tort, contract, and property are traditionally taken to be at the core of the common law tradition, yet statutes increasingly intersect with these bodies of doctrine. This Article draws on recent work in private law theory and statutory interpretation to consider afresh what courts should do with private law in statutory gaps. In particular, it focuses on statutes touching on tort law, a field at the leading edge of private law theory. This Article's analysis unsettles some conventional wisdom about the intersection of private law and statutes. Many leading tort scholars and jurists embrace a regulatory …

An Argument Against Open-File Discovery In Criminal Cases, Brian P. Fox

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note argues that, for the most part, open-file discovery proponents fail to recognize the added burden that defense counsel would face under a regime in which all items of the prosecution’s evidence are available for investigation by the defense. This is particularly true in the eighty to ninety percent of criminal cases where the defendant is indigent, and the court appointed defense counsel is operating under strict resource constraints.

This Note also argues that advocates of open-file discovery fail to recognize that in the majority of cases involving prosecutorial misconduct, the prosecutor’s intentional wrongdoing will be sufficient to overshadow …

Private Norms And Public Spaces, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

This Essay explores the role of private norms in the allocation of urban public spaces as well as local governments' efforts to enforce these norms. The Essay was prepared for the 2008 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, William and Mary School of Law, as a tribute to Robert Ellickson. community policing, informal norms

Brief For Professors Of Electronic Privacy Law And Internet Law As Amici Curiae Supporting The Appellee And Urging Affirmance, Patricia L. Bellia, Susan Freiwald

Court Briefs

No. 06-4092
Steven Warshak v. United States of America

On appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati

From the Summary of Argument

Electronic mail (“e-mail’) has become an essential medium of communication and assumed a vital role in our lives. The contents of our e-mail accounts reveal extensive and detailed information about our interests, our views, and our actions. Yet, the Government in this case claims the right to obtain the entirety of our personal e-mail accounts from our service providers, without first establishing probable cause or providing us notice, so long …

Drug Testing/Use, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

Drug testing is one of the most controversial of recent privacy issues. The bibliography which follows provides the reader with access to a wide range of discussion on this topic which is, or should be, of interest to everyone. Whether in our private lives, or on the job, drug use and drug testing will have an impact on every one of us.

Employee/Employer, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

The issue of privacy as it relates to employment in general is one of great concern, both to employers and employees. Both groups are faced with increasing threats to their individual or corporate privacy. Given that such threats carry personal, economic and social consequences, it is not surprising that many people are concerned. The bibliography which follows provides the reader with many sources which should prove useful to those well-versed in the subject, as well as to those who are looking at this issue for the first time.

The Right To Die As An Issue Of Privacy: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

The issue of whether or not an individual has the right to choose when he or she will die, is a very controversial one for many reasons. Further complicating the issue is the question of who, if anyone, has the right to decide for those who are unable to choose for themselves. The bibliography which follows includes articles which discuss this topic from a right to privacy perspective, and should prove useful to those researchers who are new to the subject, as well as to those who are already familiar with the many complex issues involved.

Sexual Freedom And Your Right To Privacy: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

Like so many other privacy issues, concern over sexual freedom took on more than intellectual overtones with the advent of greater public discussion. As courts and government appeared to enter the most private domain of all, the bedroom, the public's interest in privacy issues dealing with sexual freedom increased dramatically. This bibliography should serve as a valuable tool for researchers who have an interest in this highly controversial area of social concern.

Your Right To Privacy And Children's Rights/Family Law: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

In a society increasingly aware of real or perceived social inequities, it is not surprising to note a greater concern for the rights of children and their families. It is also apparent that privacy issues are an integral subset of the larger social sphere of interests. Privacy aspects can be seen to be involved pervasively throughout the area of law dealing with children and families, especially in view of the fact that there is obvious potential for conflict not only between families and the state, but between children and the families of which they are a part

Abortion/Reproductive Rights, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

The issue of a woman's right to choose whether or not to continue with a pregnancy has proven to be complicated for many reasons, not the least of which is the implications for a person's right to do with her body as she sees fit. The bibliography that follows provides the researcher with an in depth look at this issue, with an emphasis on the privacy aspects.

Your Right To Privacy And The Aids Virus: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

The AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus has had a profound impact upon the lives of people everywhere. One aspect of this impact can be seen in the invasion into areas that had hitherto been believed by most to be private: sexual activity/preferences, medical records/testing, etc. An intensely personal and private tragedy has become, because of its nature~ a matter of public concern. The bibliography which follows addresses the privacy concerns of those infected with the AIDS virus.

The Right Of Privacy, Sustained, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Traditionally the "right of privacy" concerned the security of certain places (chiefly, one's home) and, to a lesser extent, materials (books, papers) that were especially self-revealing. This right of privacy makes eminent philosophical sense, and it is protected by explicit constitutional guarantees, conspicuously including the Fourth Amendment, which provides that "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." The Rehnquist Court has regularly accorded less weight to this privacy in the "balance" against "law enforcement interests" than did the Warren and Burger Courts. Expanded authority …

Your Right To Privacy: A Selective Bibliography, Sandra S. Klein

Journal Articles

An awareness of relevant contemporary legal thought in the area of privacy is especially important today in light of what appears to be an increasing hostility to .the notion of individual privacy. The following bibliography considers privacy in terms of concept and application, and should prove useful to scholars, practitioners, and those seeking to gain more knowledge about this very important and complicated area of law.

Privileged Communications, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

This article evaluates dicta from Wills v. National Life & Accident Co.regarding an implied waiver for privileged communications between a patient and his physician. It looks at the historical background of privileged communications and the writings of several legal scholars to determine whether for life insurance policies that require one to be "of sound health" there is an implied waiver of privileged communications. The author concluded that based on the rules of construction courts should follow the dicta because it is sound and reasonable policy.