Introduction, The Poverty of Privacy Rights

Abstract

The U.S. Constitution is supposed to bestow rights equally. Yet the poor are subject to invasions of privacy that suggest that they live in a world where the government has few, if any, limits on its power. Khiara M. Bridges investigates poor mothers' experiences with the state -- both when they receive public assistance and when they do not. The result of this investigation is an argument that turns popular thinking on its head. Bridges argues that poor mothers' lack of privacy is not a function of their reliance on government assistance; nor is their lack of privacy a function of their bearing "weak versions" of the privacy rights everyone else enjoys. Rather, their lack of privacy is a function of their not bearing familial, informational, and reproductive privacy rights in the first place. Bridges argues that until we disrupt the cultural narratives that equate poverty with immorality, poor mothers will continue to be denied these rights.

Keywords: Right to Privacy, Moral Construction of Poverty, Medicaid, TANF, Public Benefits, Welfare, Child Protective Services, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Foster Care, Unconstitutional Conditions, Class, Hyde Amendment, Family Caps, Reproductive Privacy, Informational Privacy, Family Privacy, Law and Society