nd seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”—Amendment IV to U.S. Constitution“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”—Amendment XIV to U.S. ConstitutionWhen the founding fathers of the United States wrote the Constitution, they specifically addressed the most pressing issues of privacy during that period. Those issues included the government’s right to search one’s home as desired and the quartering of U.S. troops in the home. The privacy issues have evolved overtime due to technology and could not have possibly been predicted by the framers of the Constitution. Employees often look to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution with hopes of finding legal protection.So what does the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, written in 1791 and 1868 respectively, hold for Americans today in regards to right of privacy from a private organization? Restrictions imposed by the Fourth Amendment are effective against the federal government only, with the Fourteenth Amendment imposing privacy restrictions on state and local government. In short, neither Amendment is effective against private entities (3).With little help from the U.S. Constitution, employees must rely on the state in which they work to provide the legislation that will eliminate employer invasion of privacy. Many states are considering the acts of private organizations and, thus, passing laws to give back some of the privacy to employees and citizens. The following chart sho...
