Free speech and anonymity

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 15, 2001]

The tradition in the United States of a citizen's right to anonymously criticize public officials goes back a long way. Rarely challenged is the right to speak out against elected officials, while protecting one's identity.

Yet Stephen Moldow of Emerson, New Jersey, finds himself in a predicament. As operator of the website "Eye on Emerson," he presides over a message board where Internet users are invited to express their opinions on just about anything, especially matters having to do with the town. Users may do so anonymously or by using pseudonyms for names.

Two members of the town's Borough Council and a political candidate have filed suit against Moldow and scores of anonymous posters to his website, claiming that messages on the site defamed them. Moldow is being defended by the group Public Citizen, as well as the ACLU. The New Jersey Record reports that both organizations are arguing the case on First Amendment grounds, referring to case law governing the forced disclosure of pseudonyms. The brief states:

These cases have celebrated the important role played by anonymous or pseudonymous writings over the course of history, from the literary efforts of Shakespeare and Mark Twain through the authors of the Federalist Papers. Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent.

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