Judge supports right to post Social Security numbers on Web site
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 .
Reader Reactions
BJ again has done a great job in serving the citizens not only of Hanover County but the whole state as well. I wish all candidates who run for public office had her determination to do what is right no matter what the cost. Great job BJ!
B.J. Ostergren has more integrity than any 100 political leaders. More power to her.
Good for her! In this age of identity theft, it amazes me that our own government continues to assist these criminals through blatent dissemination of a personal information under the guise of “public disclosure”. Just because you and I are forced to provide our personal and priviate information to the government in order to conduct routine business, that doesn’t make it a “public record” just because some clerk amasses our information into a database. I hope this ruling gives her the grounds to pursue a severe civil action!
Kudos to BJ. Some of the most stupid bills are passed every year.
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