11th Cir.

Releasing mug shot photographs under the federal Freedom of Information Act would violate the personal privacy rights of those depicted, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta (11th Cir.) held on Friday in Karantsalis v. Department of Justice.

As the second federal appellate level court to address the issue, the Eleventh Circuit's decision to deny access to mug shots held by federal authorities creates a split in the circuits; the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati (6th Cir.) held in 1996 that there was no recognizable personal privacy interest in such photographs.

Several women suing the creator of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series will be allowed to proceed anonymously in the case, after a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta (11th Cir.) on Tuesday overturned a district court judge's decision requiring disclosure.

But the court left open the issue of whether the plaintiffs' request for restricted reporting at trial would serve as an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.

A freelance journalist has asked a federal appeals court to consider whether a lower court erred when it said the U.S. Marshals Service could deny a public records request for the mug shot of an infamous fugitive.

A federal court in south Florida told a freelance journalist that his request for the mug shot of a securities fraud mastermind will go unfulfilled because the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to booking photos of suspects in federal custody -- at least not if you make the request in the Eleventh Circuit.

In a total policy reversal, the chief judge of the federal court in Miami has ordered that plea agreements are public and should be made available over the Internet unless they are otherwise sealed, according to The National Law Journal.

In what may be the final step in a long-running case over electronic republication of freelancers' works, a former National Geographic freelance photographer is asking the Supreme Court to settle a copyright dispute over republication of his photos on a CD archive of the magazine.