Privacy and the Constitution

The aim of this series is to familiarize the audience with privacy principles which form the core of laws in the United States. The series explores the tension between the laws' win goals; first, encourage the open discourse and debate, often involving revolutionary (and expensive) telecommunications technology and second, enforce the right of privacy within the fullest meaning of that term, the right to be let alone. The series traces the evolution of the fundamental right to privacy as first enunciated in deeply English influenced American common law. The sources examined cover the evolution of the concept of the right to privacy as on as integral as the right to control one's own body to the right to not have strangers listen to your telephone calls or read your electronic mail. These topics establish the bellwether for any study of privacy law as that body of law is shaped by Congress in the area of telecommunications and as delivered by the eminent decisions of the United States Supreme Court over the course of the last two hundred and fifteen years. As the next century rapidly approaches, the right to privacy, the right to be let alone, in a world inundated with innumerable methods of intrusion on personal space becomes an even more germane area of study. The turbulent times of the 1960's in America began the sexual revolution which would roll forward until the mid- 1980's . The 1990's ushered in a series of laws which would change the face of the right to privacy forever. The law and ecology of privacy rights have borne significant developments that preoccupy contemporary American citizens, businesspersons, politicians and scholars alike. This series provides a practicableand scholarly reader of American privacy law for the experienced and novice alike.