Constitutional Rights
Essay Preview: Constitutional Rights
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As odd as sounds, we as American do not have a Constitutional right to privacy. Maybe our forefathers did not intend for us the have the right, or it was possibly overlooked. Some argue that the right to privacy is embedded in the Constitution. The reason we actually have a right to privacy is because of a 1977 Supreme Court ruling in a case Griswald v. Connecticut. Where a Planned Parenthood director was arrested after a doctor in the clinic gave contraceptives to a married couple in the clinic. This happened after The State of Connecticut passed a law banning the distribution of anything preventing conception.
Companies and corporations do not have a Constitutional right to privacy. They do indeed have a right to privacy because of this court ruling. This can be patents, trade secrets, and employee/agent privacy contracts. Companies spend millions keeping their secret formulas secret. For example, Coca-Cola, WD40 and Nestle chocolate. If their formulas ended up in competitors hands that can be a detrimental loss of business. It is not illegal for competing companies to use secret intelligence to find out the secrets of other companies.
Drug companies are famous for patents. However patents expire. So drug companies are forced to reengineer a drug when the patent is about to expire. They do this to keep the price high and to keep new and improved drugs on the market, but mostly to keep the price high. Once the patent expires, other drug companies can make a low-cost generic version of the drug.
Smith Systems Consulting (SSC) does not have a Constitutional obligation to keep its any of its customers information secret. However they have a legal agency agreement to keep their information secret. If they were to breach that contact they could be monetarily liable in a court of law. Depending on what information was given/released this could lead to multi-million lawsuit or settlement.