June 7, 2002

The Seattle Clause

In 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.