Columnist Bill Nemitz on Court Record Privacy
“But the moment someone crosses the courthouse threshold and takes legal action against the state of Maine – also known as you and me – that right to privacy should evaporate like a drop of water on a hot woodstove. If you’re going to sue the rest of us while claiming some God-given right to prolong the pandemic, we damn well have a right to know who you are.”
Read his November 14, 2021 column Fighting Vaccination in a Court with no Names from the Portland Press Herald at this link:
https://www.pressherald.com/2021/11/14/bill-nemitz-fighting-vaccination-in-a-court-with-no-names/
Read more about the case in a post from Friday November 12, 2021 below.
Once you protect the names of the people filing a lawsuit, our open court system suddenly becomes opaque, if not altogether invisible?
On November 10, 2021, Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville Newspapers, along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of journalists), filed a motion in the United States District Court for the District of Maine seeking to overturn a September 2021 order issued by Chief Judge Jon Levy, which allowed the plaintiffs in the case against the State of Maine to proceed “pseudonymously”.
The newspapers assert that the plaintiffs’ anonymity violates the Constitution because it denies the media and the public access to basic information that is guaranteed under the First Amendment. See Portland Press Herald Article from November 11, 2021:
See also Bangor Daily News Articles from October 13, 2021 & October 29, 2021; and Portland Press Herald Article from September 20, 2021 discussing the background of the case in general:
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