Up Ours

by Bruce Schimmel

If I wore a dress in public, people would certainly stare, and that would be an expected outcome.

But a recent court ruling makes it hard for anyone to imagine what to expect now, or what to fear in the future.

The Washington State Supreme Court just threw out the convictions of two men who used miniature video cameras to look up women's skirts. Admitting that the voyeurism was "reprehensible and disgusting," the unanimous decision still held that "the voyeurism statute, as written, does not prohibit up-skirt photography in a public location."

The statute prohibits voyeurism only in places where a person "would have a reasonable expectation of privacy." Since people in public places are now routinely scanned by surveillance cameras, there should be no such expectation, the court reasoned.

As crazy as this may sound, the logic of this decision follows that of a similar ruling in Virginia back in 1999. That court also held that "the victim had no reasonable expectation of privacy while standing on the public fairgrounds."

It's hard to imagine why the courts are treating personal privacy in public places so cavalierly, as if we either have complete privacy or none at all.

We all expect to be thoroughly searched before going onto a plane, and so expect very little privacy. But does this mean that a government agent would have the right to inspect, record and display everything on or around us?

By the logic of these all-or-nothing rulings, it would seem so. If you are in a place that is public, you apparently have no privacy whatsoever. That's crazy.

The problem is that privacy has traditionally been considered a place-defined right. Inside your house, for instance, you can expect quite a lot of privacy. Only the outside of your house is public, and even that is limited.

A reporter, for instance, may take a picture of your home from the sidewalk but not with a telephoto lens. Likewise, government agents were recently banned from using thermal imaging of suspects' homes without first obtaining a search warrant.

By tradition, your home is your castle. In an increasingly invasive world, that's not enough. It's well past time that people's own bodies should enjoy more of the rights that their houses have. Your castle is protected. Your temple should be, too.