Privacy Rights and Public Employment

Synonyms

Public employment; Privacy; Privacy law; Constitutional law; Statutory law; Federalism

Individuals employed by federal or state governments are protected by the United States Constitution, state constitutions, as well as federal and state statutes. The Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment provide public employees with an avenue of redress that would not be available to private employees. The United States Constitution restricts what governments can do, including protections for free speech and from unreasonable searches and seizures. Therefore, governments are prohibited from restricting speech and from searching employees in ways that private employers are not. However, the government typically maintains a level of oversight and control of its employees that is much more extensive than that of a private employer, and the courts have acknowledged this.

Although the term “privacy” is not used in the United States Constitution, the United States Supreme Court has...