Watchdog sues to stop new identity theft law

In an unusual case, B.J. Ostergren and the American Civil Liberties Union argue they don't want Virginia officials to post such personal information online in public court records.

But until she can stop court officials from doing so, Ostergren has posted dozens of documents on her Web site, thevirginiawatchdog.com, to promote the cause.

The site lists former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Social Security number, along with the numbers for local officials including Virginia Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax.

The General Assembly passed a law that goes into effect July 1 banning anyone from spreading those documents.

“Once the government makes the information public, the government can’t pass a law saying I can't disseminate it,” Virginia ACLU Executive Director Kent Willis said. “The free speech principle behind this case is very important.

“The ACLU is an advocate for laws that prevent the government from allowing Social Security numbers to appear on publicly accessible Web sites,” he said. “But when the government puts records online that do contain the numbers, it can't then turn around and prevent the public from disseminating the numbers.”

While Virginia already has a law requiring Social Security numbers to be redacted from documents posted on the Internet, the measure was never funded, leaving it ineffective.

“Instead of the Virginia General Assembly dealing with the real problem of Social Security numbers being put on Web sites by circuit court clerks, they decided to target me because I posted theirs,” Ostergren told The Examiner.

The lawmakers who wrote the laws, Sen. Edd Houck and Del. Joe May, were not available for comment Wednesday.

“Our office is reviewing the filing and has no immediate comment to this pending litigation,” said David Clementson, a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell.

dgenz@dcexaminer.com