Presidential Privacy Violations

30 Pages Posted: 29 Mar 2022 Last revised: 26 May 2022

Date Written: March 28, 2022

Abstract

Privacy violations are destructive, no matter the perpetrator, but governmental privacy violations can cast a particularly long and destructive shadow. In 2017, when the Department of Justice revealed the texts and extramarital affair of public servants to the press and the President amplified that information in a years-long smear campaign, the harm was incalculable. The injury to those individuals included job losses, stained reputations, physical danger, and emotional suffering. To the public, the message was clear: the government can’t be trusted to handle intimate data with care. In the wake of privacy violations at the hands of powerful government actors, we must recognize the wrongs done to individuals and the public. Existing law provides some relief, but the government’s own actions must play a part. At every branch and level, state and federal, the government must work to restore public confidence in its data-handling practices. A key step would be to recognize intimate privacy as a foundational right.

Suggested Citation

Citron, Danielle Keats, Presidential Privacy Violations (March 28, 2022). University of Illinois Law Review, Forthcoming, Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 2022-23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4068781

Danielle Keats Citron (Contact Author)

University of Virginia School of Law ( email )

580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
United States

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