City of Kirkland v. Sheehan [1]

City officials in Kirkland, Washington sued William Sheehan and other defendants for publishing personal information about Kirkland police officers on his website, www.justicefiles.org [2]. The website, which was critical of law enforcement, contained substantive political argument but also the names, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers and social security numbers of law enforcement personnel and their spouses. The City alleged that the website invaded the privacy of its officers and sought an injunction prohibiting publication of this personal information.

The Washington state court granted in part and denied in part [3] the City's motion for an injunction. It distinguished information with a substantive communicative purpose from personal information that protects an individual's identity and assets.  The court refused to enjoin the dissemination of the names, addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers of the law enforcement personnel, reasoning that absent a credible threat of harm, the First Amendment protects the dissemination of information that promotes political discussion. The court enjoined the dissemination of social security numbers, however, because the government has a compelling interest in protecting this unique identifying information.   

Later, Sheehan and his wife filed a third-party complaint [4] against Yahoo!, Infospace, Inc., RWN Corporation, d/b/a Data-trac.com, and US Search.com, Inc., claiming a right to contribution or indemnity because these companies originally published or sold the "personal" information upon which the City's lawsuit was based.  The CMLP has not been able to determine what happened after this point in the proceeding.  Sheehan's website is no longer online.