Supreme Court affirms no constitutional right to home address privacy


Marin v. Secretary of the Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
No. 41 MAP 2012

February 19, 2013

The Commonwealth Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to privacy in one’s home address. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed this ruling.

Background

Mel Marin attempted to register as a candidate for the 2010 Pennsylvania congressional election, but he refused to provide his home address. Consequently, the election board refused to certify his candidacy because the Election Code requires candidates to provide their home addresses.

Marin wanted to run for office again in 2012 and filed a petition with the Commonwealth Court asking it to declare that the Election Code’s address requirement is unconstitutional.

The Commonwealth Court ruled that there is no constitutional right to privacy in one’s home address. See Marin v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, 41 A.3d 914 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2012).

Quoting a prior Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, the court explained that, in light of the need to provide an address for everything from registering to vote to applying for a driver’s license and applying for a job, “it is all but impossible to live in our current society without repeated disclosure of one’s name and address, both privately and publicly.”

Supreme Court Order

Marin appealed the Commonwealth Court’s decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On February 19, 2013, the Supreme Court affirmed the Commonwealth Court’s ruling without writing an opinion of its own.