Privacy advocate B.J. Ostergren may post on her Web site Social Security numbers of Virginia legislators and other officials that are readily available on government sites, a federal judge ruled today.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Payne ruled that a 2008 state law that prohibits disseminating such information taken from public records was a violation of Ostergren's First Amendment rights.
Ostergren last year filed a complaint against the Virginia attorney general aimed at stopping the state from enforcing the law, which took effect July 1, 2008.
"I look at this as a victory because they tried to take away my First Amendment rights and they failed," Ostergren said last night.
Ostergren, a Hanover County resident, has campaigned against the online posting of Social Security numbers by taking such information from government sites and putting it on her site, TheVirginiaWatchdog.com.
She began posting Social Security numbers of state lawmakers to demonstrate the availability of the information and to embarrass officials into taking action.
Ostergren asked lawmakers to pass a law mandating that court clerks be required to redact Social Security numbers from online public records.
But legislators passed a law barring the dissemination of Social Security numbers taken from public records. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has been assisting Ostergren.
The ACLU says it supports laws that prevent the government from allowing Social Security numbers to appear on publicly accessible Web sites.
"But the government can't make these records available to the public then restrict what the public does with them," said ACLU executive director Kent Willis. "That violates free speech."
A spokesman for the attorney general declined to comment last night, except to say that the office will review the opinion.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.
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