"The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." [<i>Public Utilities Commission v. Pollak</i>, 343 U.S. 451, 467 (1952) (dissent… - William O. Douglas

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.

Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order, to efficiency of operations, to scientific advancement, and the like. The cause of privacy will be won or lost essentially in legislative halls and in constitutional assemblies. If it is won, this pluralistic society of ours will experience a spiritual renewal. If it is lost we will have written our own prescription for mediocrity and conformity.

The first opinion the Court ever filed has a dissenting opinion. Dissent is a tradition of this Court... When someone is writing for the Court, he hopes to get eight others to agree with him, so many of the majority opinions are rather stultified.