Privacy

A federal court of appeals threw out an almost $20 million jury award to the family of Nancy Benoit who claimed Hustler Magazine violated their daughter's right of publicity by publishing nude photographs of her after she was killed by her husband, the professional wrestler Chris Benoit in a double murder-suicide.

An Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker and journalist said she was detained by the Department of Homeland Security when trying to re-enter the United States last week after traveling in Great Britain, renewing the legal debate over electronic device searches at U.S. borders and their implications for newsgathering.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that a plaintiff cannot collect damages for emotional distress for government violations of the federal Privacy Act.

A court proceeding to determine whether an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy killed his father’s pregnant fiancée and her unborn son will remain closed to the public, a state appellate court ruled last week.

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a juvenile court order that the delinquency proceeding of Jordan Brown, now 13, should remain closed because the government's interest in protecting the privacy of juveniles outweighs the public's right of access to the proceeding.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's decision ordering The Indianapolis Star to reveal the identity of an anonymous commenter who was sued for defamation for comments made on the newspaper’s website.

In the ruling, the court said it weighed the First Amendment rights of the anonymous commenter versus the possible harm caused by the allegedly derogatory statements the commenter made on the website against the former head of a non-profit organization who filed the defamation suit.

A 21-year-old woman acquitted of violating the strict Illinois eavesdropping statute is suing the City of Chicago and three officers for allegedly violating her Fourth Amendment rights when she was arrested for recording her conversations with police officers while filing a sexual harassment complaint with the department.

The disclosure of a video showing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officer accidentally shooting himself in the leg during a lecture to community youths does not violate the federal Privacy Act, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday. The court also rejected the officer's claim for invasion of privacy under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

A federal court in California has ruled that an unnamed internet critic of an international spiritual organization can maintain his anonymity -- at least for now.