18 May 2001
Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 20:15:23 -0400 From: Declan McCullagh <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected], [email protected] Subject: FC: Kirkland police threaten Politech with lawsuit The city of Kirkland, Washington has decided it doesn't want publicly-available information about its police officers to be, well, public. On May 14, Kirkland's lawyers sent me a letter ordering me to delete three Social Security numbers of Kirkland police officers from a Politech article from last week or risk a lawsuit. I believe journalists and others generally should have the right to reprint information from public court documents, and attempts to curtail the First Amendment in the name of privacy go too far. The fine folks at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (rcfp.org) put me in touch with Bruce Johnson and his colleagues at Davis Wright Tremaine (dwt.com), which has a strong First Amendment practice. Bruce responded with a letter to Kirkland saying that journalists should be allowed to republish information they obtained lawfully. He wrote that: "Mr. McCullagh intends to exercise his First Amendment rights notwithstanding your letter." But Kirkland was undeterred, saying in their reply this week that they "stand by" their cease-and-desist-or-else threat. This case is important because it highlights how nebulous "privacy rights" can be used to limit free expression. Instead of trying to muzzle reporters, society should be trying to eliminate the Social Security number's widespread use as a personal identifier, which it was not intended to be. (Rep. Ron Paul's Identity Theft Protection Act, H.R.220, is a good first step.) If Kirkland gets its way, this precedent could be used to prevent reporters from printing other personal information, such as addresses or ages, that they find newsworthy or relevant in their coverage. You can see news coverage of Kirkland's legal threats here: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/165907.html The Politech article that is in danger of being taken down if Kirkland wins an injunction: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02008.html [Copy below] All the documents are online here: http://www.politechbot.com/kirkland/ -Declan Editor, Politech May 18, 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 00:08:43 -0400 To: [email protected] From: Declan McCullagh <[email protected]> Subject: FC: Judge deletes SSNs from public documents from web site Cc: [email protected], [email protected] Judge Robert H. Alsdorf of King County, Washington believes it is illegal to republish Social Security numbers taken from public court records. I'm including in this post a few SSNs from the justicefiles.org site: >Blinsink Steven Harold 239-41-9528 Aug-70 Patrol Police Officer IV >Beath Brian B. 537-46-2392 Feb-47 Police Support Officer $2,619.00 >Coleman Ronald L. 536-68-6894 Apr-59 Master Police Officer $4,690.00 I believe that same information is available from public court records and other lawful public sources, and I'm including it here for journalistic purposes -- to demonstrate what kind of information the site in question has. This post will be archived at http://www.politechbot.com/p-02008.html I invite the city of Kirkland, copied above, to respond. -Declan ********* Decision: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/justicefiles.opinion.051001.html Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 16:32:53 -0700 To: [email protected] From: elena luisa garella <[email protected]> Subject: Very interesting ruling in Kirkland cop case! King County Superior Court Judge Robert Alsdorf ruled that the defendants must take down the SSNs only from the Kirkland portion of www.justicefiles.org. Everything else can stay up. His reasoning is VERY interesting-- even novel-- the judge expands legal protections for identifying personal information (under a invasion of privacy theory) in order to respond to the fact that the internet is a new medium, far more immediate and permanent than traditional fora . . . In other words, the Judge appears to conclude that fact that the speech is on the Internet means that it can be treated differently than if it were in pamphlets, spoken from a soapbox, in the newspaper, etc. The ruling is attached. Law Office of Elena Luisa Garella 1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1730 Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 689-2142 FAX: 382-9261 NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential information. If you have received it in error, please advise the sender by reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments without copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you. ********* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------