Graduation Year
2022
Date of Submission
12-2021
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)
Reader 1
Professor Paul Hurley
Reader 2
Professor George Thomas
Abstract
This paper argues that partisan gerrymanderers violate citizens’ right to privacy by using data containing sensitive information on citizens without a compelling state interest. It first details how partisan gerrymandering claims have been argued in Court in the past. Next, it discusses theories of the right to privacy, mainly exploring the tensions between James Madison’s writings on privacy and Warren and Brandeis’ famed The Right to Privacy. Then, I present originalist arguments for upholding the original meaning and principles of the right to privacy and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments before walking through case law related to privacy and technological advances. In conclusion, this paper holds that state legislatures violate the original meaning of the right to privacy, protected by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, when they use anonymized data sets to partisan gerrymander. Resultingly, these data sets should only be accessed when a compelling state interest is identified and partisan bias is curbed.
Recommended Citation
Deckey, Ana, "Partisan Gerrymandering and The Right to Privacy" (2022). CMC Senior Theses. 2889.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2889
