3.9 Amendments: Due Process and the Right to Privacy

Supreme courts issue with balancing liberty and order when it comes to right to privacy

Although there's no enumerated "right to privacy" in the Bill of Rights, since the 1960s the Supreme Court has held that several amendments create a "penumbra" of privacy for individuals' private beliefs and conduct. In Roe v. Wade, the Court extended the right of privacy to the decision to have an abortion. The right to privacy is not unlimited, however: the decision in Roe recognized that the government may regulate abortion in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy due to compelling state interests in maternal health and potential life.

"penumbra" of privacy

Derived from the Latin for "partial shadow." The Supreme Court has ruled that several amendments in the Bill of Rights cast a "penumbra" of the right to privacy, although the right to privacy itself is never explicitly named. For example, the Court has interpreted that the Fourth Amendment right of the people to be secure in their houses from unreasonable searches and seizures implies a right to privacy in the home.

Case that used right to privacy among one reason when making it's ruling

Roe v Wade: the Court extended the right of privacy to the decision to have an abortion.

due process clause

The Fourteenth Amendment clause guaranteeing that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The Supreme Court has interpreted the due process clause to provide for "selective incorporation" of amendments into the states, meaning that neither the states nor the federal government may abridge individual rights protected by the Constitution.

right to privacy

The right to "be left alone," or to be free of government scrutiny into one's private beliefs and behavior.