It would doubtless be desirable that the privacy of the individual
should receive the added protection of the criminal law, but for this,
legislation would be required.[53] Perhaps it would be deemed proper to
bring the criminal liability for such publication within narrower
limits; but that the community has an interest in preventing such
invasions of privacy, sufficiently strong to justify the introduction of
such a remedy, cannot be doubted. Still, the protection of society must
come mainly through a recognition of the rights of the individual. Each
man is responsible for his own acts and omissions only. If he condones
what he reprobates, with a weapon at hand equal to his defence, he is
responsible for the results. If he resists, public opinion will rally to
his support. Has he then such a weapon? It is believed that the common
law provides him with one, forged in the slow fire of the centuries, and
to-day fitly tempered to his hand. The common law has always recognized
a man's house as his castle, impregnable, often, even to its own
officers engaged in the execution of its commands. Shall the courts thus
close the front entrance to constituted authority, and open wide the
back door to idle or prurient curiosity?
_Samuel D. Warren,
Louis D. Brandeis._
BOSTON, December, 1890.