A USA Today story raises the issue about whether divorce records should be public or private. The article has a good discussion of the law of divorce record confidentiality, and it has examples of several cases where reporters obtained divorce records of celebrities and politicians in order to glean juicy bits of gossip. One of the most interesting cases involves Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan, who ran in Illinois in 2004:
Republican contender Jack Ryan quit the race after news organizations persuaded a Los Angeles judge, over objections by Ryan and his ex-wife, to unseal their 2000 child-custody battle. Jeri Ryan, an actress in TV’s Boston Public and Star Trek: Voyager, had alleged that her husband dragged her to “sex clubs” and asked her to have sex with him in front of strangers. She said she refused. . . .
I’m quoted in the story as siding with keeping divorce records confidential:
Daniel Solove, a professor and privacy advocate at George Washington University Law School, says it was “inappropriate” for the court to release the Ryan allegations. “It’s a private matter, essentially a dispute between this couple. We don’t say, ‘You’re running for politics and your priest should have to divulge confession records.’ ”
But Donald Schiller, a Chicago attorney, says, “If you’re putting your character on the line for voters to see, maybe there should be no secrets. But that shouldn’t apply to the average man or woman.”
Although my quote came out fine, I wouldn’t describe myself as a “privacy advocate.” Both Schiller and I agree that divorce records should be private, but Schiller believes that they shouldn’t be private for politicians. I believe they should be presumed to be private unless there’s a very compelling reason to the contrary. Who’s right, Schiller or myself? What about the divorce records of celebrities? Should they be public because celebrities are public figures? And perhaps, one could argue, divorce records should be public for everybody, even if they’re not famous. After all, people getting a divorce are availing themselves of the courts, and courts are public institutions.
This is a very interesting and contentious issue. States are all over the place when it comes to policies regarding whether divorce records remain sealed or not. The article continues:
Solove says media claims of constitutional rights to court records are overblown. Divorce papers are “fun and interesting, and people are curious,” Solove says. “But why should people be forced to give the government personal information, and then the press can use it for entertainment value?”
The media often spends far too much time fighting for information about celebrities or tawdry bits of gossip about politicians and not enough time fighting for information about what the government is up to. People make all sorts of allegations in divorce papers, and they lay bare very intimate details about their lives (and the lives of their families and children too). With regard to the Ryan case, the records contributed little to the issues involved in the campaign; indeed, it detracted from them. Both Jack and Jeri Ryan wanted the records sealed; they had a young child whom they didn’t want to learn about the details of their sex lives. I don’t think that this contributed to the public discourse, and people shouldn’t have to have their personal lives exposed for all to see in order to get a divorce.
Related Posts:
1. Solove, Why Volokh Is Wrong on Public Records and the First Amendment
Originally posted at Concurring Opinions
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This post was authored by Professor Daniel J. Solove, who through TeachPrivacy develops computer-based privacy training, data security training, HIPAA training, and many other forms of awareness training on privacy and security topics. Professor Solove also posts at his blog at LinkedIn. His blog has more than 1 million followers.
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