On June 13 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 in favor of the patient, Officer Redmond, in the Jaffee v. Redmond case. In effect this unexpectedly powerful ruling grants psychotherapy patients a unique new privilege; henceforth no psychotherapist, including licensed physicians, psychologists, and social workers, can be compelled to reveal information about a patient's psychotherapy in a federal court against the patient's wishes.
The American, in conjunction with three other organizations of psychoanalytic professionals, filed an amici curiae brief in this case in January strongly siding with the patient. Several other professional organizations did so as well. Prior to the ruling, there has been no specific psychotherapy patient privilege in the federal courts. Several district courts had decided such cases inconsistently.
The court's ruling is particularly powerful because it specifically and clearly rejected the “balancing test” proposed by lower courts. In such a test, judges would decide on a case by-case basis whether the need for the evidence held by the psychotherapist outweighed the patient's need to privacy. In the majority opinion, the court instead took the position that the confidentiality need of patients in psychotherapy is a sufficiently important societal good as to deserve the same near-absolute privilege accorded to legal clients and marital partners.
The entire court ruling can be viewed or downloaded at The American's Web site: apsa.org.
The American in LA