News

Actions

Podcast: Ann Boleyn gave us our right to privacy

Posted at 4:54 PM, Feb 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-11 17:54:46-05

Today Americans view privacy as a fundamental civil liberty, a right that puts a boundary on what the government can do. Our "right to privacy" has become part of the essential contract Americans make with their government, a system that protects individuals from the government’s ability to intrude into the private sphere.



But there was a time when the very idea of a right to privacy, even of a right to one’s own thoughts, wasn’t such a foregone conclusion.

This week on the podcast, we take you through a history of the right to privacy, where we got our ideas about privacy – specifically personal privacy – and then how that right to privacy has been applied in famous Supreme Court Cases such as Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v Wade.


To listen to other DecodeDC podcasts, watch edgy videos and read blog posts about politics, politicians and policy, go to DecodeDC.com. And don't miss a new spin-off podcast titled, TrailMix 2016