Posted on 07/27/2010 7:44:40 AM PDT by smokingfrog
A Virginia privacy advocate can post public records containing Social Security numbers of private citizens as well as government officials on her website, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The court agreed with B.J. Ostergren's claim that a 2008 state law prohibiting anyone from making Social Security numbers available to the public violated her First Amendment rights.
Ostergren posts the records on her website, TheVirginiaWatchdog.com, to publicize her message that governments are mishandling Social Security numbers and to prod them to correct the problem. Many of the documents are Virginia land records that court clerks have made available on government websites without redacting Social Security numbers.
The General Assembly passed legislation prohibiting Ostergren's practice, saying the state's interest in preventing identity theft trumps her First Amendment rights. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.
"The unredacted SSNs on Virginia land records that Ostergren has posted online are integral to her message," Judge Allyson Duncan wrote in the unanimous opinion. "Indeed, they are her message. Displaying them proves Virginia's failure to safeguard private information and powerfully demonstrates why Virginia citizens should be concerned."
The court also agreed that the state cannot punish Ostergren for posting on her website the same public records that the government makes available online.
"Ms. Ostergren's most powerful advocacy weapon has been to demonstrate to the public how bad a job the government is doing to protect our online privacy rights," said Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, which represented Ostergren. "The government responded, but by trying to silence Ms. Ostergren."
(Excerpt) Read more at hamptonroads.com ...
What in the !@#$
so now i know where to get valid ssan’s in case I want to steal someone’s identity.
swift
Is her SS# posted?
What about the rights of the people that the SS#’s belong to?
Up until a few years ago, Virginia used SSNs as driver license numbers.
I think her point is that she’s not doing anything the State government isn’t already doing.
This is the same Circuit that sided with the Phelpses vs. Snyder. Gotta wonder, and VA no less. I am so ashamed.
IIRC, when I lived in Virginia, it was on my checks
Sounds like the 9th Circus out here on the Lefty Coast has a challenger for the "Dumbest Judges in America" award!
Misleading title. The court’s decision is correct.
Btw, how is posting someone else’s personal information freedom of speech?
Read the article. She’s only reposting what the state government is posting on the internet itself, to draw attention to the fact that it is not redacting the social security numbers in public records. They tried to make it illegal for her to post this, instead of just telling the state employees to redact the SSN’s before they post the public records online.
So the government and the courts make every accommodation for illegal aliens, captured terrorists, thugs who intimidate voters and identity thieves...
...but it is the tea partiers who are somehow “dangerous” or “racist”. Yeah, right.
“Sounds like the 9th Circus out here on the Lefty Coast has a challenger for the “Dumbest Judges in America” award!”
Protecting government watchdogs from being muzzled is dumb how?
How is it their personal information if the government posts it on a website along with public records?
Texas used to use SSN’s for certain license numbers, such as pest control operators. I think they’ve done away with that though.
I was looking through some of my old army papers the other day. Most of my orders have the name and SSN of everyone in my company.
SSN’s are everywhere out there if you know where to look. The state doesn’t need to make it that much easier for criminals to get them.
She must be a big investor in ‘Life Lock’
Here comes a Rush “Life Lock” commercial...
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