The Law: Emanations from a Penumbra

(2 of 2)

And that I cannot do." Stewart's solution: Let Connecticut citizens persuade their legislature to repeal the law.

Justice Black was equally aghast: "I like my privacy as well as the next one, but I am nevertheless compelled to admit that government has a right to invade it unless prohibited by some specific constitutional provision." Finding no such specific covering privacy, Black, who is often accused of scorning "judicial restraint," proceeded to rake his brethren for imposing their subjective feelings on a legislature. Should the court continue this "shocking doctrine," said Black, it will wind up as "a day-today constitutional convention."

Meanwhile, lawyers can now spend years happily fighting over just what else the new right of privacy covers.