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June 20, 2002Seattle: Trummel Case UpdatePaul Trummel is a free man now that he knuckled under to an abusive Washington State judge and removed from his web site information that he had published, as is his right under the First Amendment. (Friday A.M. Update: According to the AP story carried by today's Seattle Times, Trummel's lawyer had this to say: "He had a choice between pulling it and being put in jail by a judge who doesn't understand some of the fundamental precepts of constitutional law.") Trummel is an old man and one can hardly blame him for not wanting to spend another three or four months in jail. Sadly, Judge James Doerty has gotten away with an egregious violation of this man's constitutional rights. The FreePaulTrummel.com website has posted a through evisceration of the judge's recent ruling in the Trummel case - and compares it with the much more reasoned and sane ruling offered by another Seattle judge in another case, Kirkland v. Sheehan, also involving the publication of personal information on a website by a freelance critic. Notes the author of the FreePaulTrummel.com web site: "Comparison between the ruling re Sheehan and Doerty's off-the-cuff rant from the bench re Trummel, reveals a shocking difference in judicial tone and grasp of the principles involved. Doerty's opinion is totally lacking in legal citation except in the most casual and vague way. The Sheehan ruling is characterized by a firm and well-founded legal logic, complete with citations of specific and relevant US Constitutional Law and the relevant law of the State of Washington and other states." Well said. Interestingly, after word of Trummel's unconstitutional incarceration spread across the Internet, a number of people posted messages on the judge's campaign website "guestbook" condemning the judge's action. One person even posted on the judge's site the very information that the judge ordered Trummel remove from his own. The guestbook feature has now been removed from the judge's web site. The information Trummel was ordered to take down from his site is provided on this site in order that the judge's unconstitutional order not succeed in denying Paul Trummel his First Amendment rights. Trummel, meanwhile, is appealing the judge's order, arguing that he has both a First Amendment right and a right under the state of Washington's public information disclosure law, to publish the information. (This story from the Associated Press fails to mention that the information Trummel was ordered to remove from his site is information available freely under the state of Washington's open public records law.) To express your opinion to the Seattle papers on the Trummel case, send emails to: Seattle Times: opinion@seattletimes.com Judge Doerty deserves a whole lot of email explaining to him the First Amendment.
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June 18, 2002Seattle First Amendment Case Update - UPDATED!Good news: The Seattle judge who imprisoned an old man for refusing to remove stuff he legally published on his website has let the old man out of jail after 3.5 months. Bad news: Paul Trummel is still under a court order to take down the information, which the judge finds offensive. The judge has ruled that Trummel has no First Amendment rights because he is not a paid journalist, though First Amendment scholars agree the rights of free speech are for everyone. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has endorsed the judge for re-election, covers the Trummel case today, apparently for the first time (based on a search of the paper's online archives.) For more information on the Trummel case, Click Here and Click Here. UPDATE! You gotta love the subversive ingenuity of this: Someone has posted on the judge's campaign website the very same information that the judge has given Paul Trummel until Friday to remove from Trummel's site if he wishes to avoid being returned to jail. Just visit the judge's "guestbook" and scroll down to the post by "Digital Angel" listing names and contact info for the administratiors and board of directors of the government-subsidized retirement home where Trummel lived before the judge tossed him into the slammer. That's the information the judge wants removed from the site. Now it's on his own site (for now...)
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June 9, 2002Missing the PointF. Jacques, a resident of Council House, the Seattle low-income retirement home where Paul Trummel lived before a judge tossed him in prison for refusing to remove something he said on his website, emailed me a long screed describing Trummel's bizarre behavior and criticizing those who defend him. Jacques alleges journalists are covering the Trummel case "without any concern for the truth or ethical principles" and bemoans the fact that "even the venerable New York Times joined the band wagon." He claims the press coverage of the Trummel case "is inevitably an opportunistic, shallow and fleeting defense of the freedom of the press." and calls it a "patently absurd suggestion" that "anyone with a Press Card IS a journalist." Jacques concludes: "Absolving Paul Trummel's behavior simply because he pretends to be a journalist is unpardonable. Frivolous intellectual vanity." Sadly, Jacques misses the whole point. Indeed, Paul Trummel may be crazy and he may have harassed people at Council House. He may be a liar. He might not be or ever have been a "journalist" in any professional sense. So what? He is still entitled to the rights granted by the First Amendment, rights that are for all residents of the United States, not just those who have a press card or get a paycheck from a media organization. Judge Doerty has wronged Mr. Trummel twice. First, he ordered him to remove from his website what appears to be constitutionally protected speech. Then he imprisoned him for not complying. Even worse, the judge justified his actions by making the specious claim that First Amendment rights are only for paid journalists. I don't defend Mr. Trummel because I am or because he claims to be a journalist. I defend Mr. Trummel precisely because he isn't a paid journalist. The judge's order makes it clear that if Mr. Trummel could prove he indeed was a paid journalist, he would not be in prison nor be under court order to remove certain things from his web site. Unlike Judge Doerty, I believe the First Amendment is for all who live under the U.S. Constitution, whether they get a paycheck from a media organization or not. And, unlike Mr. Jacques, I can't stomach the notion that a judge should be allowed to imprison a person whose speech the judge finds objectionable. To learn more about the case, scroll down and read my previous posts, and also visit the Free Paul Trummel web site. To express your opinion to the Seattle papers on the Trummel case, send emails to: Seattle Times: opinion@seattletimes.com Judge Doerty probably could use a few more emails before June 17, when the Trummel incarceration is set for court review. He has two email addresses:
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June 8, 2002LettersA Seattle reader, Jack William Bell, has forwarded me a copy of a letter he has sent to King County Superior Court Judge James Doerty expressing his concerns about the jailing of freelance journalist Paul Trummel for refusing to take back something he wrote on his website. Bell urges the judge to set Mr. Trummel free and "redress the harm already done to the Constitution and to this man." "Clearly he is no saint, but he is protected by the same Constitution as the rest of us and any attempt to trample his rights affect mine as well," Bell continues. "You have already damaged yourself as a judge in my eyes sir. I do not believe I can ever vote for you with a clear concience. "I would rather have a hundred Paul Trummels free in this world calling themselves 'journalists', or even 'private citizens with a grudge', than one judge willing to sacrifice the rights our forefathers died to secure us because an old reprobate dares to defy him." Well said, Mr. Bell. To learn more about the case, scroll down and read my previous posts, and also visit the Free Paul Trummel web site. To express your opinion to the Seattle papers on the Trummel case, send emails to: Seattle Times: opinion@seattletimes.com Judge Doerty probably could use a few more emails before June 17, when the Trummel incarceration is set for court review. He has two email addresses:
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June 7, 2002More on the Trummel CaseThere is a Free Paul Trummel web site. Also, yesterday's Seattle Times has a good story on the Trummel case. It's worth reading. Here are some excerpts: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., the National Union of Journalists in London and Reporters Sans Frontières of France also have questioned whether Trummel is in jail for offensive, but constitutionally protected, web-site content. A quick search of the Post-Intelligencer's archives via its web site turned up no stories on the Trummel case, though it did turn up the paper's endorsement of Doerty (published months before he jailed Trummel). A year ago, the P-I published this rather ironic story in which another judge in the same jurisdiction ordered the King County Sheriff's Office to pay more than $13,000 in legal fees for two men the Sheriff's Office sued rather than disclose the last names and ranks of its deputies - information the men were posting on the Internet. The men are entitled to the information under the state's Public Disclosure Act. Judge Doerty also issued a ruling in that case. To express your opinion to the Seattle papers on the Trummel case, send emails to: Seattle Times: opinion@seattletimes.com The Freedom Forum, a leading First Amendment/free press foundation, is carrying the Associated Press version of the Trummel story on its website, here. (Full disclosure: my father-in-law is chairman of the Freedom Forum.) Tidbits from the AP story: Trummel's lawyers say he was in jail for 63 days before Judge Doerty appointed a lawyer to represent him. Trummel's incarceration is set for court review June 17. Judge Doerty probably could use a few more emails before then. He has two email addresses:
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The Seattle ClauseIn Seattle, a 70-year-old man is now imprisoned in solitary confinement for something he said. A judge has kept Paul Trummel in prison for more than three months because Trummel refuses to delete certain materials from his online newsletter. The story, which I told you about on this site a few weeks ago, is finally getting wide coverage via this AP story. Trummel was jailed indefinitely on Feb. 27 for violating an anti-harassment order by King County Superior Court Judge James A. Doerty. Doerty ruled in April 2001 that Trummel had been abusive and stalked residents and administrators at Council House, a low-income retirement home in Seattle where Trummel formerly lived. The judge ordered Trummel to remove from the website personal data on employees at Council House, and imposed fines of $100 a day for failing to comply. He later limited Trummel's phone privileges and put him in solitary confinement. Doerty has said Trummel doesn't have First Amendment rights because he is not a paid journalist. Either there is a little-known "Seattle Clause" in the First Amendment or Doerty is an idiot and a proto-fascist. I think it's the latter. You can email him and tell him so - and urge him to free Trummel and restore his First Amendment rights - by sending email to: james.doerty@metrokc.gov.
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