Schmerber v. California/Dissent Douglas

by William O. Douglas

United States Supreme Court

384 U.S. 757

Schmerber  v.  California

 Argued: April 25, 1966. --- Decided: June 20, 1966

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, dissenting.

I adhere to the views of The Chief Justice in his dissent in Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432, 440, 77 S.Ct. 408, 412, 1 L.Ed.2d 448, and to the views I stated in my dissent in that case (id., 442, 77 S.Ct. 413) and add only a word.

We are dealing with the right of privacy which, since the Breithaupt case, we have held to be within the penumbra of some specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights. Griswold v. State of Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510. Thus, the Fifth Amendment marks 'a zone of privacy' which the Government may not force a person to surrender. Id., 484, 85 S.Ct. 1681. Likewise the Fourth Amendment recognizes that right when it guarantees the right of the people to be secure 'in their persons.' Ibid. No clearer invasion of this right of privacy can be imagined than forcible bloodletting of the kind involved here.

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