The Penumbra Problem

The U.S. Constitution is silent about a right to privacy, yet the Supreme Court determined in the 1965 reproductive rights case Griswold v. Connecticut, that such a right is inferred from the Bill of Rights. The reasoning in the landmark case hinged on an unexpected word – penumbra. The Court concluded, in other words, that the unmentioned right to privacy resides in the shadows of the amendments. But this was not the first time penumbral imagery was used in legal writings, and its broader cultural usage dates back much further. Jared Schroeder's The Penumbra Problem provides a much-needed – and quite colorful – social and cultural history of the term. The penumbra concept, it turns out, wasn't an accidental choice but instead a well-selected term with centuries of transnational history. Schroeder tells its story through two intertwining narratives: first, how the word penumbra transcended its oblique scientific origins to become a distinct cultural concept; and, second, the parallel story of its evolving use in legal thought. The book tracks back and forth in time, creating an unexpected lineage of people and works who became unwitting champions of the penumbra concept,…