Privacy and autonomy: from Warren and Brandeis to Roe and Cruzan

Warren and Brandeis' tort against invasion of privacy had chiefly a social goal: to enlist the courts to reinforce the norm of civility. Years later in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court announced a constitutional right of privacy that was personal in focus. Here and in subsequent rulings on abortion and the "right to die, " it became apparent that Warren and Brandeis' Victorian "right to be let alone" had metamorphosed into a right to autonomy, whose amoeboid contours made prediction or even description a tricky business. But privacy is an unsatisfactory proxy for autonomy, and perhaps for this reason has dwindled in importance as a rationale in these areas.