Justice Antonin Scalia, during a conference comparing American and Jewish legal traditions, has reiterated his belief that there is no constitutional right to privacy.
“The vast majority of your rights are not constitutional,” he said Jan. 28 at a conference in New York City sponsored by the Institute of American and Talmudic Law. “Most of them can be taken away.”
Scalia, the Supreme Court’s most outspoken conservative, said the Bill of Rights has some privacy overtones, but offers no overarching right to privacy. The justice has disagreed with Supreme Court decisions based on such a right, including Roe v. Wade.
“The U.S. tradition is basically a Christian tradition, and it is precisely the same [as the Jewish tradition] with regard to gossip,” he said, claiming that in the American tradition, “you don’t say anything shameful about another, even if it’s truthful, unless you need to.
“Where the [Jewish and American] traditions differ is in their legal enforceability,” he continued. “I wouldn’t send someone to jail for gossip, but I would send them for penance.”
The conference came as privacy advocates in the United States and Europe marked International Privacy Day.
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