Opinion ID: 1213892
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Constitutional Right of Privacy

Text: Mangum finally argues that she has a viable claim against the City because it violated her constitutional right of privacy when it obtained copies of the insufficient fund checks that she had placed in the stream of commerce. While there is a constitutional right to what is known as informational privacy, [23] which may even encompass confidential financial information, [24] that avails her nothing in this case. What Mangum claims is that once the insufficient-fund check was negotiated by her victim, ultimately rejected by her bank, and then returned to the victim, who put it out for collection but never returned it to her possession, a right of privacy to the information on that instrument somehow sprang into being. That right, she says, would include any insufficient fund information entered upon the check by other parties. We disagree. The Supreme Court put its finger on the core of the problem with Mangum's assertion decades ago, when it was faced with a claim by a defendant that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution precluded the government from subpoenaing checks, deposit slips, and other records, in the hands of the defendant's banks. United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435, 436-38, 96 S.Ct. 1619, 1621, 48 L.Ed.2d 71 (1976). The Court stated: [W]e perceive no legitimate expectation of privacy in their contents. The checks are not confidential communications but negotiable instruments to be used in commercial transactions. All of the documents obtained, including financial statements and deposit slips, contain only information voluntarily conveyed to the banks and exposed to their employees in the ordinary course of business. Id. at 442, 96 S.Ct. at 1624; see also United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727, 732, 100 S.Ct. 2439, 2444, 65 L.Ed.2d 468 (1980). Mangum seeks to confine that holding to its narrow facts, that is, checks in the possession of the banks, but points to nothing that would cabin the principle in that way. Why would she acquire more of a privacy right when the bank returned the check to her victimthe person to whom she gave itor when that victim made further use of that document of false promise? We think there is no viable basis for an assertion that she did. See, e.g., SEC v. Jerry T. O'Brien, Inc., 467 U.S. 735, 743, 104 S.Ct. 2720, 2725-26, 81 L.Ed.2d 615 (1984) (It is established that, when a person communicates information to a third party even on the understanding that the communication is confidential, he cannot object if the third party conveys that information or records thereof to law enforcement authorities.); United States v. Cormier, 220 F.3d 1103, 1108 (9th Cir. 2000) (finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in information a person gave a hotel when he registered as a guest); Wang v. United States, 947 F.2d 1400, 1403 (9th Cir.1991) (finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in records a person gave to his financial consultant); United States v. Choate, 576 F.2d 165, 175 (9th Cir.1978) (finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in information on the outside of an envelope deposited in the mail). To the extent Mangum suggests that the very enactment of the FDCPA gave her a right of privacy in the checks and the information thereon as soon as the victims turned them over to collection agencies, we disagree. Congress did indicate that its purpose was to eliminate abusive debt collection practices, [25] and noted that those practices can contribute to a number of ills, including invasions of individual privacy. [26] But that is far from saying that the information on the check itself is private or that once a check is put out for collection, any other person who sees or obtains it, or a copy of it, has violated the bad check writer's right of privacy. In fact, the only remedy for violations of the FDCPA is against the debt collector itself, [27] when that collector wrongfully communicates the information in connection with the collection of a debt. [28] That is a relatively narrow prohibition and remedy. [29] Nor does it avail Mangum to point to the general, and somewhat amorphous, right to informational privacy. No doubt that right exists. See Nelson, 530 F.3d at 879-80 & n. 5. However, the existence of that right is a far cry from holding that a person who places a negotiable instrument into the stream of commerce, an instrument that could (and indeed would) be seen by numerous individuals, who could, themselves, have shown it to others, including the City, still retained a legitimate expectation that if the check came into the hands of a collection agency, no other individual, including the City, could ask for a copy. The thought that a bad check writer retains some inchoate constitutionally protected right of privacy in what her bad check discloses while and after it moves through the stream of commerce is daedalian, but it will not bear examination. The bad check writer eschews privacy when the check is launched, and surely does not reacquire it along the way. It is one thing to say that a person has a privacy right and can refuse to give out personal information when asked. It is quite another thing to say that having sent a negotiable instrument into the stream of commerce, the person has a privacy right to preclude others from obtaining information that is found upon the instrument itselfhere, of course, Mangum's bad check, which she could have reasonably foreseen would wind up in the hands of a collection agency. Simply put, at no point did the information in question become sufficiently personal to merit constitutional protection. See Ferm v. U.S. Tr. (In re Crawford), 194 F.3d 954, 958 (9th Cir.1999). It being pellucid that Mangum had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the checks she issued and placed in the stream of commerce, we need not go on to ask whether the City would have an interest in obtaining the information on those checks, which would outweigh some privacy interest of hers. Thus, we will not issue an advisory opinion that purports to balance the City's need for information about a police department employee's improper activities against some hypothetical interest of Mangum in keeping the information on her bad checks from the City.