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September 1972

October 1972

September Calendar
General Meeting
LWV-Honolulu Calendar 1972-73
Off the Board
Membership Memo
Announcements
Comments on Books (I.M.A. Reader)
What's New and Coming?
Voters Service
Help Needed
Time for Training
Budget Recommendations
September Unit - The Right to Privacy
Equal Rights Amendment
Meet the League Coffees (Marian Wilkins)
National Notes (Lucy Wilson Benson)

September Unit - The Right to Privacy

Is your privacy really private? Many citizens have long assumed that this was true. Now with modern technology and surveillance techniques, it may well be time to rethink our assumptions about privacy to see if they fit the realities of modern life.

Our round of units during the last week of September will attempt to touch on many of the aspects of the invasion of privacy. We will have views from both the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office.

The following cases will give you some food for thought in preparation for our discussions in the units. We hope to see you all there.

  1. A well known local businessman and his wife apply for a credit card at a national chain department store. Two weeks later they receive a form letter telling them their application has been turned down. Since this has never happened before and they have always had a good credit rating, it comes as quite a surprise. Mrs. Allen calls the store's credit department and finds out that they had received a negative report from the credit bureau. Mr. Allen, being a banker, calls the credit bureau to see what's wrong with his rating. Sure enough, they have a report that there is an outstanding bill to a contractor from several years back.

    Four years previously Mr. Allen had a house built with a custom-designed kitchen sink. When the sink was delivered, it didn't fit and the Aliens refused to pay for it. The matter was taken to court and decided in Mr. Allen's favor. The credit bureau just never pulled the red flag on the Allen's file.

  2. Nancy, spaced out on reds, opens the door to her apartment and invites in two men standing there.

    Her boyfriend, Bill, is busy cutting and packaging heroin in the kitchen. The two men are plainclothesmen from the narcotics detail they make an immediate arrest. Their visit was prompted after a telephone tap led then to believe they would find drugs.

  3. Jane, just home from the hospital with her new baby, was besieged by telephone calls and visits from salesmen. She. couldn't understand how they could have known about the new baby and her address because the vital statistics had not been published in the paper yet. Finally, one salesman told her that the names and addresses of new parents are posted by the State health department along with the results of the state required PKU test for new babies.

  4. Joe Blow, a reporter for The Tattler, wanted to write a blazing exposé of a well known public official. Not knowing what of any material he can find, he rummages through the official's garbage cans which have been left out on the curb for pick-up. He later writes a news column describing his findings.

Although the League has taken no official position on the right of privacy, the League of Women Voters Education Fund has published a new pamphlet, The Right of Privacy. We feel that it is an excellent presentation and urge you to purchase a copy at your unit meeting. The Honolulu League Board was so impressed that we have decided to give a couple of copies to each of the Oahu high school libraries for students' use. The American Civil Liberties Union is co-financing the cost of distribution.

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