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

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed May 22 2002 - 05:31:35 PDT

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    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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