Does the right to privacy still hold sway in Judge Stevens’ affirmative vision of constitutional liberty?
Does the right to privacy still hold sway in Judge Stevens’ affirmative vision of constitutional liberty?

Summary/Abstract: This research examines the historical and doctrinal evolution of the constitutional basis of the right to privacy in the United States, a fundamental right while not explicitly written in the text of the Constitution yet recognized by the Supreme Court under the Bill of Rights. Using a qualitative doctrinal methodology, the study scrutinizes how judicial perception has shifted from the “penumbra doctrine” to Justice Stevens’ text-based protection of liberty under the Fourteenth Amendment. The results of this study indicate that while Justice Stevens’ “affirmative vision” successfully transitioned privacy into a robust concept of personal autonomy in cases like Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the recent Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) ruling has rendered these unenumerated protections legally ambiguous by imposing a strict “history and tradition” standard. The implications suggest that for constitutional liberty to retain relevance, the legal framework must move toward John Rawls’ theories of personhood and Ronald Dworkin’s moral reading of the Constitution to preserve individual dignity in the digital age.

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