The constitution guarantees our right to protect information from unwarranted search and seizure

Daniel Ellsberg

Charles Breyer, now a federal judge, in his appearance on C-SPAN Books discussion titled Watergate's Legal Legacy, commented on the passivity of the public with respect to government invasions of privacy without warrants. He described the prevailing attitude as "if someone has nothing to hide, then they need not worry about government intrusion into their homes, offices or telephone conversations." He seemed to indicate that the issue is not that people have things to hide, but things to protect. Among those things are the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

One of the early abuses by the Nixon administration was the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellberg's psychiatrist in the aftermath of his making a study of the decision making about Viet Nam available to the public by leaking a classified government report to the press. The White House authorized the break in without a warrant and without any judicial review. The psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Fielding, had the right to protect the records of interviews with his patients (including but not only those with Ellsberg) from being revealed to the public or the government. Certainly his patients had the right to expect that their psychiatric records would be protected. Thus Dr. Fielding can be seen as the prototypical person with nothing to hide and much to protect, whose constitutional rights were infringed upon on orders from the White House.

I in fact had met Dr. Fielding; his son was a close friend of mine at one time. The invasion of his office did Dr. Fielding real harm. His son told me that not only had many of his patients left his care, denied of their rightful privacy, but that his practice never recovered. Perhaps more importantly he felt his privacy had been violated and his government had prevented him from fulfilling his professional responsibility to assure the confidentiality of the communications with his patients.