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Swordsmyth
12-12-2018, 07:31 PM
A federal judge ruled Monday that Americans have a right to secretly record their public officials, including police, when they are engaged in their government duties.
U.S. District Chief Judge Patti B. Saris (https://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/patti-b-saris/) said a Massachusetts law banning secret recordings violates the First Amendment when it comes to government employees, rejecting the state’s claims that officials need some space to be able to operate without having to worry about being monitored.
“This is not to say that police and government officials have no privacy interests,” she wrote. “However, the diminished privacy interests of government officials performing their duties in public must be balanced by the First Amendment interest in newsgathering and information-dissemination.”

She ruled in favor of two sets of plaintiffs, one of which regularly livestreamed video of police officers performing their duties, and the other James O’Keefe, whose Project Veritas specializes in catching public policy figures saying embarrassing things.
Mr. O’Keefe called the ruling groundbreaking.
“The impact of this win will ripple throughout the nation. It will set historical precedent and keep citizen journalism alive in all fifty states,” he said in an email to supporters touting the case — and asking for money, because he predicted Massachusetts would appeal the ruling.
The state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Massachusetts’ law, enacted in 1968, is a general ban on taping wire and oral communications, with the legislature saying it was concerned the proliferation of “modern electronic surveillance devices” was a danger to citizens’ privacy.
Judge Saris (https://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/patti-b-saris/), a Clinton appointee to the federal bench, said those privacy rights are important, but said that must take a back seat when it comes to public officials, and even police officers on duty.


She said the First Amendment’s protections are particularly important “with respect to law enforcement officials who are granted so much discretion in depriving individuals of their liberties.”

More at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/10/project-veritas-case-judge-patti-b-staris-rules-am/