West Virginia Judicial Data Shield Lost First Amendment Test (1)

West Virginia’s privacy shield for judicial and law enforcement officers lost a private right of action after a federal judge said it was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

As a content-based restriction on speech, the privacy shield failed to survive strict scrutiny after Judge Michael F. Urbanski said Section E’s private right of action—meaning individuals could sue for violations of the law—lacked a notice or knowledge requirement, so it wasn’t sufficiently narrowly tailored to protect legal officials.

The operative provision—part of a Daniel’s Law which passed after the death of a federal New Jersey judge’s son—assigned damages and the right ...