From: bboerner@novell.com (Brendan B. Boerner)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: Privacy    (was Re: what the hell is HR 4983
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:17:13 GMT
Distribution: tx
Organization: Novell, Inc. --Austin

In article <DQCIF3F@taronga.com> kossack@taronga.com (Jordan M. Kossack) writes:
>bboerner@novell.com (Brendan B. Boerner) writes:
>|> - do you really want to live in a country where you DON'T have a right
>|> to privacy?  Suppose you invite me into your house and I start poking
>|> through your personal files or whatever.  What are you going to do?
>
>	I'll tell you to leave.  If you do not, I'll call the police and 
>   tell them that I have an intruder in my house and would they kindly 
>   come and remove him.  Then I would press charges for trespassing and 
>   I would never invite you into my home again.  How's that for a solution 
>   that requires no new laws nor the invention of implied Constitution 

OK, I'll grant you that you have a means of removing me after you see
that I'm a threat to your privacy.  But suppose your attention is
diverted for a while and I have time to poke around.  You can demand
that I leave and back it up with the police only after I've invaded
your privacy.

The copy of The American Heritage Dictionary which came with my desk
has these definitions of trespass: 1) to commit an offense or sin; err;
transgress. 2) to infringe on the privacy or attention of another. 3)
to invade the property or rights of another without consent.

I'm uncertain how 1) would apply.  After all, I'm an invited guest in
your house (up until you decide to through me out that is :-)).  2) you
don't have a right to privacy. 3)  How have I invaded your property
rights if I'm an invited guest?


>   rights.  The Tenth Amendment clearly says that the powers not delegated 
>   to the United States, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the 
>   states respectively, or to the people.  Go read it for the exact words.

I have an idea of how I'll respond to this but I'll come back later
after I've been to the library to confirm what I recall.

>|> Does this bother you?  Do you find privacy a desirable thing to
>|> have?  If so, how do you maintain it from someone who wants to
>|> breach it?
> 
>	Your question is unclear.  What to do mean?  

Using my previous example, after I've invaded your privacy while an
invited guest, what can you do about it?  What is in place to protect
your privacy such that you can go and attempt to seek retribution?  The
way I see it, since you have no right to privacy, I haven't done
anything wrong so there is nothing you can do except throw me out.  If
I saw your future business plans which I can somehow use to my
advantage you can't sue me for invading your privacy, you have none.
How would you have prevented this?

>	Anyway, if there is, in fact, a constitutional right to privacy, 
>   then certainly it is obvious that any and all gun-registration laws 
>   are unconstitutional, since such registration would violate the owners' 
>   right to privacy.  Since NOW has supported firearm registration and  
>   other anti-firearm laws, it would seem that they really don't believe    
>   in a right to privacy.  Ipso facto, NOW doesn't believe abortion is 
>   protected by that non-existant constitutional right.     
>                                                (Or they're hypocrites.)  

Intersting point which I'll have to think about.

Brendan
-- 
Brendan B. Boerner		Phone: 512/346-8380
Internet: bboerner@novell.com	MHS: bboerner@novell
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