Privacy, Property, and Free Speech: Law and the Constitution

Overview Course No. 9438

Although the courts have struggled to balance the interests of individuals, businesses, and law enforcement, the proliferation of intrusive new technologies puts many of our presumed freedoms in legal limbo. This course features 24 eye-opening lectures that immerse you in the Constitution, the courts, and the post-9/11 Internet era. Professor Rosen, an award-winning legal scholar, explains the most pressing legal issues of the modern day and asks how the framers of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights would have reacted to aspects of modern life, such as full-body scans, cell phone surveillance, and privacy in cloud servers.

Course Content

• Freedom and Technological Change

Consider hypothetical cases that could confront the U.S. Supreme Court in the decades ahead: ubiquitous surveillance, designer embryos, and evidence from brain scans. Survey the history of legal protections for privacy.

Duration: 34 min

• Privacy and Virtual Surveillance

Examine areas where new technologies challenge our existing ideas about constitutional protections for privacy in public places.

Duration: 28 min

• Privacy at Home

Study the evolution of privacy in the home, which remains the place with the most legal protection.

Duration: 30 min

• Privacy on the Street

Survey your rights on the street, where monitoring has spread to new technologies such as speed cameras and smart parking meters.

Duration: 29 min

• The Privacy of Travelers

Learn about your rights when faced with body scans and other security measures while traveling in the United States and abroad.

Duration: 31 min

• Privacy and National Security

Analyze the domestic war on terror in light of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Duration: 33 min

7. Privacy in the Courtroom

Investigate the continued problem with forced self-incrimination in the context of new technologies.

Duration: 31 min

8. Privacy in the Police Station

Explore the origin of the Miranda warning and its role in mental privacy today.

Duration: 34 min

• Privacy in Electronic Communications

Understand how law influences the search of private areas, including email in the workplace.

Duration: 31 min

• Privacy in Cell Phones and Computers

Examine protections for data stored on personal devices and the implications of the Internet on privacy.  

Duration: 30 min

• The Internet and the End of Forgetting

Probe the idea that youthful indiscretions can follow individuals indefinitely due to online presence.  

Duration: 29 min

• Follow-Me Advertising Online

Discover how online data mining works and what you can do about it.  

Duration: 30 min

• Privacy and the Body

Trace the constitutional right to privacy through landmark Supreme Court cases like Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade.  

Duration: 30 min

• The Right to Die

Investigate the courts' responses to right-to-die cases and how to avoid legal struggles.  

Duration: 29 min

15. Privacy and Sexual Intimacy in Marriage

Explore cases where the Supreme Court has been careful not to render sweeping judgments.  

Duration: 34 min

• The Constitution and Private Property

Study how individual property rights apply to constitutional amendments regarding arms, immunities, and credits.  

Duration: 30 min

• The Supreme Court and Private Property

Focus on the court's record in economic rights cases from the Gilded Age to the New Deal.  

Duration: 31 min

18. The Roberts Court and Economic Rights

Evaluate the current Court's approach to economic rights cases through notable decisions.  

Duration: 30 min

19. Takings and Eminent Domain

Understand what constitutes a “taking” of private property and the implications for public use.  

Duration: 29 min

20. The American Free Speech Tradition

Learn about the principle that speech can only be suppressed under imminent threat of lawless action.  

Duration: 31 min

• From WikiLeaks to the Arab Spring

Study free speech in the context of contemporary controversies and efforts to suppress offensive speech.  

Duration: 30 min

22. Google, Facebook, and the First Amendment

Explore the roles of major tech companies as gatekeepers for free speech online.  

Duration: 30 min

23. The Right to Be Forgotten

Examine the implications of a proposed data-protection law in Europe that seeks to guarantee “the right to be forgotten.”  

Duration: 30 min

• The Constitution in 2040

Conclude with tips on how to protect your privacy against future technological challenges.  

Duration: 33 min