Who Is The Enemy?

AFSCME Council 13 has won another round in its legal battle to protect the privacy and safety of the state's corrections and parole officers.

PENNSYLVANIA

AFSCME Council 13 has won another round in its legal battle to protect the privacy and safety of the state's corrections and parole officers.

The case stems from the efforts of one Sandra L. Feigley of Harrisburg to gain access to the state's computer database of corrections and parole officers. Feigley, whose husband is serving time in jail for sex crimes and whose Web site refers to prison COs as "The Enemy," contended that personal information from the database should be readily accessible to the public, including her own Web site. In March 2000, AFSCME and several individual plaintiffs went to state court seeking a temporary injunction. They argued that no legitimate interest would be served by disseminating such information over the Internet.

The union also insisted some of that information should not be in the public record at all (although it is available at the state library). It asked for — and received — a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking Feigley's efforts. When the state Supreme Court later upheld that decision, Feigley tried to transfer the matter to a U.S. district court, which in December refused to hear her appeal.

AFSCME next will ask the lower court to grant a permanent injunction, blocking Feigley for good.