Seattle: Trummel Case Update
Paul 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
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: editpage@seattlepi.com

Judge Doerty deserves a whole lot of email explaining to him the First Amendment.
jim.doerty@jdoerty.com or
james.doerty@metrokc.gov