I won't beat this dead horse any more after this. I think Eugene is right that Thomas' reference to no general privacy right means Thomas thinks the only rights relevant to privacy in the Constitution are those Stewart mentioned in Griswold e.g. Third Amendment, Fourth Amendment. But that's definitely NOT what Thomas said in his confirmation hearings when he spoke favorably of Harlan's view of the right to privacy, for example, and when he said some of the other things Keith mentioned. Thomas was going beyond saying the right to privacy was embedded in those amendments -- he said it emanated from the Fourteenth Amendment.
And I don't agree with Ilya's argument that Thomas can have a "familial right to privacy" without having any general notion of what the right to privacy means. Mark Mark Kende Professor of Law University of Montana School of Law Missoula, Montana 59812 406-243-4317 (phone) 406-243-2576 (fax)
