Home חג שמח בראש השנה ויום כיפור (1998) / חג שמח בראש השנה ויום כיפור (1998) / Exchange with Senator Long about Senate Testimony on Privacy (1967)

Correspondence

March-November 1967

Exchange with Senator Long about Senate Testimony on Privacy (1967)

Jewish Law & Secular Law
Background Information

In 1967, Rabbi Lamm published an article entitled “The Fourth Amendment and Its Equivalent in the Halachah,” drawing parallels between Jewish law and American constitutional protections of privacy. He later submitted written testimony on the subject to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Background Information

1. Senator Long to R. Lamm

1. Senator Long to R. Lamm (March 21, 1967)

1. Senator Long to R. Lamm (March 21, 1967)

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Correspondence

Exchange with Earl Klein about Articles on Jewish Law and the Constitution (1966)

Dear Rabbi Lamm: Although we may have been contemporaries at Yeshiva, I am not certain that we have ever met. I graduated from the College in 1947. As you are probably well aware, an article of yours on the Fifth Amendment and Halakhah was cited by Chief Justice Warren in a footnote to the famous Miranda case. I have been interested for a long time in the problem of confessions in criminal cases and particularly where Jewish law has application.I am interested in obtaining a copy of your article, and I wonder whether you have any reprints or copies available. If there is any expense involved, please let me know or if you have a copy that I might be able to Xerox I would certainly appreciate it.I am a subscriber to Tradition and have enjoyed reading your articles, and look forward to seeing the one on the Fifth Amendment.By the way do you know of any articles on capital punishment and Talmudic law? I would appreciate any help you can give me.With kindest regards to you and to Rabbi Jung, my former professor and a man I greatly admire.Sincerely,Earl KleinEK:ff
Jewish Law & Secular Law

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Letter to Dr. Konvitz about Article on Privacy and the Law (1967)

Dear Professor Konvitz: Please forgive me my undue delay in reacting to the splendid article, a reprint of which you sent me, on "Privacy and the Law: A Philosophical Prelude." I preferred to do justice to so eminent an author by reading his work, with the requisite diligence and attention, instead of a perfunctory and cursory reading together with a superficial note of thanks. Your ideas are certainly enlightening, and constitute a most valuable contribution to the current literature on the theme of privacy. I quite agree with your association of sexual immorality with the exposure of one’s physical privacy in the Bible, as evidenced by the cases of Adam and Noah. I would add that the general Biblical term for Illicit sex is giluy arayot – which implies exposure, revealing, uncovering, and therefore the reverse of privacy and modesty.I hope you will forgive me for registering one objection to this section of your article. I would not have referred to the story of Adam and Eve as a "mythical" teaching. Even if one does not accept the narrative of Adam and Eve as being literal and historical truth, it is still a considerable jump from mythology to figurative truth in the Bible.Your connection of Justice Douglas’s opinion on "Zones of Privacy" as flowing out of Justice Brennan's notion of "breathing space," calls to mind the great and fundamental Talmudic principle of seyag le’torah; if, therefore, indeed, privacy is a Biblical notion, then Jews must consider it not as a point but as an area or "zone," and therefore Rabbinical legislation must include the "penumbra" in the areas prohibited to intrusion.It might interest you to know that I have been invited by Senator Edward Long to testify before his Senate sub-Committee on the view of Jewish law and theology on the question of privacy.It was a pleasure corresponding with you – I still hope to hear from you and receive any comments you may have on my article – and I look forward to meeting you personally at the May 7…
Jewish Law & Secular Law

Correspondence

Letter to Justice Warren about Senate Testimony on Privacy (1967)

Dear Judge Warren: About ten years ago, in the 1956 issue of Judaism, there was published an article I had written entitled "The Fifth Amendment and its Equivalent in the Halakhah." I was honored to see a reference to this article in your famous Miranda decision of last May. I have the honor, therefore, of sending you enclosed a copy of the testimony I recently delivered before Senator Long's Sub-Committee dealing with the rights of privacy. My testimony, which will be shortly printed in the Proceedings of that Committee, deals with the views of Halakhah (Jewish law) on the Fourth Amendment. I know how terribly busy you are, but I would deeply appreciate receiving any comments you may have to make on this paper. Sincerely yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm
Jewish Law & Secular Law