Court Opinion

ID: 9521235
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:00:57.607245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:45:34.035568
License: Public Domain

TOMLJANOVICH, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. If the allegations against Wal-Mart are proven to be true, the conduct of the Wal-Mart employees is indeed offensive and reprehensible. As much as we deplore such conduct, not every contemptible act in our society is actionable.
I would not recognize a cause of action for intrusion upon seclusion, appropriation or publication of private facts. “Minnesota has never recognized, either by legislative or court action, a cause of action for invasion of privacy.” Hendry v. Conner, 303 Minn. 317, 319, 226 N.W.2d 921, 923 (1975). As recently as. 1996, we reiterated that position. See Richie v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 544 N.W.2d 21, 28 (Minn.1996).
An action for an invasion of the right to privacy is not rooted in the Constitution. “[Tjhe Fourth Amendment cannot be translated into a general constitutional ‘right to privacy.’ ” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 350, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). Those privacy rights that have their origin in the Constitution are much more fundamental rights of privacy — marriage and reproduction. See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 485, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965) (penumbral rights of privacy and repose protect notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship and reproduction).
We have become a much more litigious society since 1975 when we acknowledged that we have never recognized a cause of action for invasion of privacy. We should be *237even more reluctant now to recognize a new tort.
In the absence of a constitutional basis, I would leave to the legislature the decision to create a new tort for invasion of privacy.
STRINGER, Justice.
I join in the dissent of Justice TOMLJA-NOVICH.