Substantive Due Process Right to Privacy in Medical Information – Reason Magazine

The Supreme Court hasn’t made clear whether such a constitutional right to be free from government disclosure of private information (as opposed to the indubitably existing right to be free from unreasonable searches), even setting aside the Dobbs debate; see NASA v. Nelson (2011). But some lower courts have recognized it, see, e.g., Marsh v. County of San Diego (9th Cir. 2012), and this morning’s decision by Judge Matthew Kennelly (N.D. Ind.) in Logan v. City of Evanston follows Seventh Circuit precedent on this point: … Evanston Police Chief Demitrous Cook … published onto his personal Snapchat story several photos of individuals who were of interest in Evanston police investigations. Cook also published these individuals’ dates of birth and last known addresses. Some of the individual photos had comments like “in custody” or “DOA” (dead on arrival) handwritten next to the image. The word “pending” appeared next to Logan’s identifying information, and “HIV” was handwritten next to his image…. Social media users who saw Cook’s story subsequently shared the photos and personal information on Facebook and through text messages. Days later on February 22, Logan took an HIV test, which was negative, to rebut the perceived public belief that he…
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