FC: Justicefiles.org sues to overturn Wash. state "cop privacy" law

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Bill Sheehan has filed suit in federal court to overturn a law designed to 
outlaw his justicefiles.org website. You may remember that Bill is one of 
the people who runs justicefiles.org, which compiles and republishes 
publicly-available information on law enforcement officers in Washington state.

It is a core principle of the First Amendment, even as interpreted by 
courts nowadays, that truthful information obtained legally is 
presumptively legal to republish. But Bill got sued anyway by the city of 
Kirkland, Washington:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sheehan

Kirkland then threatened me with a lawsuit for quoting from the 
justicefiles.org site in a Politech article. The fine folks at Davis Wright 
Tremaine sent Kirkland a stiff have-you-heard-of-free-speech letter:
http://www.politechbot.com/kirkland/

Then Washington state enacted a law aimed at outlawing future 
justicefiles.org-like sites:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2001-02/Senate/6700-6724/6700-s_sbr.pdf

Here's Bill's complaint:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/sheehan.lawsuit.052202.html
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/sheehan.lawsuit.052202.doc

-Declan




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