They [the makers of the Constitution] conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone—the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

Louis D. Brandeis used this language as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice in a famous dissent during the early era of modern surveillance. The case involved the federal government’s use of wiretaps to obtain evidence without physically trespassing into a home or office. Writing in dissent, Brandeis argued that constitutional protections must adapt to new technologies that enable intrusive monitoring. He framed privacy as a core constitutional value—something the Framers sought to secure against governmental overreach—warning that unchecked electronic eavesdropping could erode liberty even without traditional “search” methods.

Brandeis characterizes privacy not as a minor interest but as a foundational liberty: the individual’s right to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion. By calling it “the most comprehensive of rights,” he suggests privacy undergirds other freedoms—speech, association, and personal autonomy—because constant monitoring chills independent thought and action. The phrase “right most valued by civilized men” is a normative claim that a mature society measures itself by how well it protects personal life from state power. The quote is often read as an argument for interpreting constitutional guarantees dynamically in response to technological change.