Washington Dancers Sue To Prevent Identity Disclosure

An anonymous reader writes with this BBC story about a Washington open-records law that is having some controversial consequences for some unlikely people. "Government open-records requests can be boring. Government open-records requests made by a man who wants to obtain information about 70 licensed strippers in his town so he can 'pray for them', on the other hand... The godly citizen in question is David Allen Van Vleet of Tacoma, Washington. In September he filed court papers to obtain personal information on 70 government-licensed nude dancers at a nightclub in his area — including their full names, addresses, photos and dates of birth. (Yes, Washington requires nude dancers to pay a $75 a year license fee.) The county auditor granted his request under the state's open-records law - although she also notified area dancers and club managers of her action. On 21 October two licensees sued to block the release of the information. Two days later a county judge issued a temporary order blocking the release, with a final decision scheduled for 15 December."

Comments

Re:This should be interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't enter suit as a plaintiff to block a records request without revealing your identity to the court, and, therefore, other parties to the case.

IANAL, but I believe you can hire a lawyer to file a suit as an anonymous plaintiff, for a legally justifiable reason of course.

Re:This should be interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, Roe v. Wade was brought by an anonymous plaintiff. "Roe" because there was a simultaneous case brought by a "Doe".

Let's hope he doesn't prey on them...

[bledri]

That said, you'd think an all knowing God already knows who the strippers are.