What is the right to privacy?

The right to privacy is protection from unreasonable government intrusion into personal life, decisions, communications, and physical spaces. Although the Constitution does not use the word privacy, the Supreme Court has located the right in several specific provisions of the Bill of Rights and in the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. The First Amendment protects the privacy of beliefs and associations, recognized in NAACP v. Alabama (1958). The Third Amendment protects the home from being commandeered for soldiers. The Fourth Amendment protects the people against unreasonable searches and seizures, including searches of homes, vehicles, and personal effects. The Fifth Amendment protects against compelled self-incrimination, shielding the privacy of mental processes and records.

The Ninth Amendment retains for the people rights not specifically enumerated. The Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause has been read to protect substantive privacy rights in matters of personal autonomy. Justice William O. Douglas synthesized this approach in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), describing zones of privacy formed by the penumbras of these provisions and using them to strike down a Connecticut law that banned the use of contraceptives.

Subsequent decisions extended privacy protection in several directions. Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) extended contraceptive rights to unmarried people. Loving v. Virginia (1967) protected the choice to marry across racial lines. Roe v. Wade (1973) recognized a right to obtain an abortion, before being overruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022). Lawrence v. Texas (2003) struck down state laws banning consensual private sexual conduct. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) recognized the right to same-sex marriage.

The Court has also developed Fourth Amendment privacy doctrine. Katz v. United States (1967) established that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places, and applies wherever a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Riley v. California (2014) required a warrant to search the contents of a cell phone seized during arrest. Carpenter v. United States (2018) extended Fourth Amendment protection to historical cell site location records held by phone companies.

Statutory privacy protections include the Privacy Act of 1974 governing federal agency records, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 covering wiretaps and email, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 protecting medical records, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 protecting student records, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. State constitutions in California, Florida, and several other states explicitly protect privacy. Naturalization candidates should know that privacy in the United States covers both freedom from physical intrusion and freedom in personal decisions.