Reading Room Document

Constitutionality of the Administration's Privacy Legislation

This memo considered the potential sources of constitutional authority for Congress to pass legislation regulating the collection and disclosure of personal information by a variety of financial institutions. The memo noted that Congress might justify the legislation as an expansion of Fourth Amendment privacy rights under the Enforcement Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, it cautioned that this would be a novel argument and concluded the Commerce Clause presented a stronger source of authority.

September 21, 1979