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ACLU, Internet Providers Oppose Disclosure Of Chat-Room Poster

By Samuel Fineman, Esq.
October 02, 2003

A number of Internet companies and the American Civil Liberties Union have joined forces to protect the identity of a person who claimed in a political online chat room that a state court judge behaved unethically.

The groups argue the Internet is the equivalent of the anonymous sheets patriots once nailed to trees and courthouse doors to criticize the English monarchy before the United States declared its independence. One such screed, Thomas Paine's influential pamphlet, 'Common Sense,' was published in January of 1776.

Attorneys for Superior Court Judge Jane Ore Melvin say the chat room message, insinuating she illegally lobbied then-Gov. Tom Ridge to appoint a friend to a vacant spot on the Allegheny County bench, was defamatory.

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