FC: Freedom Forum's Privacy Time Line

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

***********

Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2000 12:55:54 -0500
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt () coil com>
Subject: Freedom Forum's Privacy Time Line


Freedom Forum's Privacy Time Line

http://www.freedomforum.org/press/series/1999/12/privacy.timeline.asp

Timeline

1890  Harvard Law Review publishes "The Right to Privacy." 4 Harvard Law
Review, pp. 193-220. Authors Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis (the future
Supreme Court justice) state their case for invasion of privacy as a legal
tort. More than 100 years later, privacy experts cite that article as the
catalyst for all privacy law.

1893  Corliss v. Walker, 57 Fed. Rep. 434. Federal Judge LeBaron Colt
rejects claims that a biography of a deceased inventor constitutes an
invasion of privacy in what is considered the Þrst federal privacy case.
Colt says that recognizing the right to privacy would restrict freedom of
the press.

1903  New York passes a state privacy law that prohibits the unauthorized
use of an individual's name or picture for advertising or trade purposes.

1905  Pavesich v. New England Life Ins., 122 Ga. 190. Georgia becomes the
Þrst state in which a court legally recognizes the right to privacy.

1908  Moser v. Press Pub. Co., 109 N.Y.S. 963. A New York court rules that
the use of articles and photographs in a newspaper doesn't qualify under
state law as a "trade purpose" and denies a man's claim that the
publication of his name and picture violated his privacy.

1930  Brandeis offers concept of "right to be let alone" in dissent in
Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438, a case involving the wiretapping of a
liquor dealer.

1960  California Law Review publishes William Prosser's article "Privacy."
48 California Law Review, pp. 383-423. Prosser postulates that the concept
of invasion of privacy is actually an assemblage of four related but
distinct torts: intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light
and appropriation of character for commercial use.

1967  Time Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374. The Supreme Court, in its Þrst
privacy case involving the news media, rules against a family claiming that
a photo layout in Life magazine invaded their privacy. The court determines
that if a plaintiff Þles a false-light claim arising out of an issue of
public interest, he or she is required to prove that the defendant
published the article with knowledge of its falsity or in reckless
disregard of the truth. Uses the standard approved in 1964 in New York
Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254.

1974  Cantrell v. Forest City Publishing Co., 419 U.S. 245. The Supreme
Court determines that The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio, knowingly or
recklessly published falsehoods about the widow of man killed when an Ohio
River bridge collapsed.

1974  Gertz v. Welch, 418 U.S. 323. The Supreme Court abandons the
actual-malice standard for private Þgures, saying plaintiff didn't have to
prove that a magazine acted recklessly or knowingly in publishing
falsehoods against him. The decision frees states to develop their own
standards of defamation for private Þgures.

1975  Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469. The Supreme Court
overturns an award for damages imposed against a television station which
broadcast the name of a rape-murder victim.

1977  Oklahoma Publishing Co. v. Oklahoma County District Court, 430 U.S.
308. The Supreme Court Þnds unconstitutional a state court's pretrial order
enjoining the media from publishing the name or photograph of an
11-year-old boy in connection with a juvenile proceeding that the media
attended.

1979  Smith v. Daily Mail Publishing Co., 443 U.S. 97. The Supreme Court
overturns a state law forbidding newspapers from publishing the name of any
youth charged as a juvenile offender.

1988  Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46. The Supreme Court holds
that the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who sued Hustler alleging intentional
inþiction of emotional distress, has to prove that the publication
contained a false statement of fact published with knowledge or with
reckless disregard as to its truth.

1989  Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524. The Supreme Court strikes down
a jury award against a newspaper which violated a state law forbidding
publication of the name of a sexual-offense victim. But the court majority
acknowledges that privacy concerns, in a similar case with different facts,
might outweigh press rights.

1989  Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press, 489 U.S. 749. The Supreme Court holds that federal agencies may
withhold "rap sheets"  compilations of arrests, indictments, convictions or
acquittals  on private citizens, even though the information is public at
its original source.

1991  Department of State v. Ray, 502 U.S. 164. Citing the right to
privacy, the Supreme Court allows State Department ofÞcials to withhold
records identifying refugees who were denied asylum and sent back to Haiti.

1994  Department of Defense v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 510 U.S.
487. The Supreme Court holds that home addresses of government employees
should not be released to union organizers. The court says the release of
the addresses serves no public interest because the information does not
reþect upon government operations.

1999  Hanlon v. Berger, 119 S.Ct. 1706, and Wilson v. Layne, 119 S.Ct.
1692. The Supreme Court determines that law enforcement ofÞcials violate
the Fourth Amendment right against unlawful searches and seizures by
allowing journalists to follow them onto private property as they execute
warrants.

1999  Los Angeles Police Department v. United Reporting Publishing Corp.,
98-678. The Supreme Court upholds a California law that forbids the release
of police-blotter information to companies that use the data for commercial
purposes.

Sources: Don Pember, Privacy and the Press (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1972); Bruce Sanford, Libel and Privacy (New York: Aspen
Law & Business, 1999); Barbara Dill, Journalist's Handbook on Libel and
Privacy (New York: Macmillan Inc., 1986); and the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press.




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