The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

In a striking victory for constitutional rights, a recent court decision has made it clear that First Amendment rights protect a writer operating under a pseudonym.

The New York State Supreme Court recently struck down a request in a lawsuit against Google to reveal the name of a blogger who writes under the name “Orthomom.” Lawrence County Schoolboard Trustee Pamela Greenbaum filed the suit against Orthomom, claiming that comments on her blog at orthomom.blogspot.com were “defamatory.”

According to reports, Greenbaum claimed that the writer of Orthomom called her a “bigot” and an “anti-semite.” In her decision, Judge Marcy Friedman first noted that the comments attributed to Orthomom were in fact posted by other bloggers and readers in the comments section of her blog, and then ruled that, regardless, the statements made were protected opinions, not defamatory comments.

More generally, Judge Friedman saw Greenbaum’s attempt to reveal the blogger’s true identity as an assault to constitutional rights. In her own words, she writes, “The relief sought by Greenbaum, on the eve of a school board election, would have a chilling effect on protected political speech.”

As Orthomom herself pointed out in a recent column in the Jewish Star, the Constitution has protected writers using pen names throughout U.S. history, including the writers of the Federalist papers, one of the most famous examples of American political critique.

With all of the confusion and outrage over the constitutional legitimacy of surveillance, wiretapping and torture that American governmental officials have been disclosing in recent months, it’s good to know that in some corners of the American legal landscape, the United States Constitution still remains unquestionable.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am and is filed under Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.