Opinion ID: 198846
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unreasonable Publication

Text: 218 Under Maine law, one who gives publicity to a matter concerning the private life of another is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy, if the matter publicized is of a kind that (a) would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, and (b) is not of legitimate concern to the public. See Nelson v. Maine Times, 373 A.2d 1221, 1225 (Me. 1977) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts 652D). Defendants argue that Kennedy's claim for unreasonable publicity, based on the broadcast revelation of Kennedy's failure of a federally-mandated random drug test, fails because (1) the test result was a matter of public concern, and (2) the test result was already public at the time of the broadcast. 219 The constitutional validity of the unreasonable publication tort is unclear. To date, the Supreme Court has declined to decide whether truthful publications may ever be subjected to civil or criminal liability consistently with the First and Fourteenth Amendments, or to put it another way, whether the State may ever define and protect an area of privacy free from unwanted publicity in the press . . . Cox Broadcasting Co. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469, 491 (1975); see also Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524, 533 (1989) (again declining to answer that question). We need not consider whether this tort is constitutionally viable, because we conclude that plaintiffs did not establish its state law elements. 220 We ask first whether the result of Kennedy's drug test was of legitimate concern to the public. Nelson, 373 A.2d at 1225 (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts 652D). The Restatement includes within the scope of legitimate public concern matters of the kind customarily regarded as news. See Restatement (Second) of Torts 652D cmt. g. News includes publications concerning, inter alia, crimes, arrests, deaths resulting from drugs, and other matters of genuine, even if more or less deplorable, popular appeal. Id. Individuals' drug use, particularly where related to public safety, may be a legitimate matter of public concern. See White v. Fraternal Order of Police, 909 F.2d 512, 517 (D.C. Cir. 1990) (drug tests performed on police officer). So, too, may be the regulation of public health or safety. See, e.g., Shulman v. Group W Productions, Inc., 955 P.2d 469, 488 (Cal. 1998) (traffic accidents); Reuber, 925 F.2d at 719-20 (effectiveness of government's fight against cancer); Lee v. Calhoun, 948 F.2d 1162, 1165 (10th Cir. 1991) (policing medical malpractice). 221 We believe that Kennedy's drug test results reasonably tend to illustrate the report's newsworthy themes of interstate truck driving, highway safety and relevant government regulation. 28 Because the public may be legitimately concerned with federally-mandated drug testing of truckers, Kennedy's test results, and the consequences of the results with regard to his driving career, defendants cannot be liable for invasion of privacy as a matter of law. See Nelson, 373 A.2d at 1225. 222 Plaintiffs concede that the general subject matter of the broadcast is of legitimate public concern. They also concede the newsworthiness of the general topic of drug use among interstate truck drivers. They deny, however, that the public has a legitimate interest in the identity of an individual driver who tested positive for drugs. See Y.G. and L.G. v. Jewish Hosp. of St. Louis, 795 S.W.2d 488, 500 (Mo. Ct. App. 1990) (while in vitro fertilization program may well have been matter of public interest, identity of plaintiffs, who participated in program, was not). We think, however, that the factual circumstances for disclosure here are more compelling than in Y.G., and we follow other circuit courts that have permitted journalists to portray individuals' personal circumstances in ways that reveal their identities where sufficiently related to a matter of public concern. See, e.g., Haynes v. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 8 F.3d 1222, 1233 (7th Cir. 1993); White, 909 F.2d at 517; Gilbert v. Medical Economics Company, 665 F.2d 305, 308 (10th Cir. 1981). 223 The plaintiff in Gilbert, a doctor who had been featured in an article about malpractice, similarly complained that while the topic of policing failures in the medical profession was newsworthy, her name and photograph were not. See 665 F.2d at 308. The court disagreed: 224 With respect to the publication of plaintiff's photograph and name, we find that these truthful representations are substantially relevant to a newsworthy topic because they strengthen the impact and credibility of the article. They obviate any impression that the problems raised in the article are remote or hypothetical, thus providing an aura of immediacy and even urgency that might not exist had plaintiff's name and photograph been suppressed. 225 Id. 29 See also Haynes, 8 F.3d at 1233 (Posner, J.)(defendant author's decision to use identified individuals to illustrate themes in historical study was constitutionally protected); White, 909 F.2d at 517 (identity of high-ranking police officer who tested positive for marijuana was matter of public concern). 226 The same rationale applies here. Defendants learned that the truck driver whom they had filmed for their program, who had insisted that he did not currently use drugs and was a safe driver, tested positive in DOT-mandated random tests for marijuana and amphetamines. We think defendants were entitled to illustrate their messages about highway safety and regulation with new information about the individual subject of their report. 30 Simply reporting statistics about truckers who use drugs, or discussing the details of Kennedy's case without mentioning him by name, would have substantially less impact. 227 The district court held that Kennedy's test results were insufficiently linked to the topic of highway safety because there is no evidence that Kennedy was actually drug-impaired while driving on the Dateline run. DOT regulations, however, forbid driving after testing positive for drugs, and given that positive results emerged from a test administered while Kennedy was actually driving, it cannot be dismissed as lacking in newsworthiness. Defendants could draw from Kennedy's failure of the drug test the reasonable inference that there was some likelihood that his driving was sometimes drug-impaired, thereby endangering the public. If the press is to have the generous breathing space that courts have accorded it thus far, editors must have freedom to make reasonable judgments and to draw one inference where others also reasonably could be drawn. Gilbert, 665 F.2d at 309. 228 It is true, as Kennedy contends, that his drug test results were subject to strict confidentiality requirements under state and federal law. This is not a case, therefore, in which the news media has simply reported a crime that is already a matter of public record. Compare Cox, 420 U.S. at 495-96 (identity of rape victim acquired from public court documents) with Haynes, 8 F.3d at 1232 (primary source of personal facts about plaintiff was personal interview, not public documents). Information does not have to be a matter of public record, however, in order to relate to a matter of public concern such that it can be disclosed by the media. See Haynes, 8 F.3d at 1232; see also Restatement (Second) of Torts 652D cmt. e (the legitimate interest of the public may extend beyond those matters which are themselves made public, and to some reasonable extent may include information as to matters that would otherwise be private). 229 In short, we hold that Kennedy's drug test results were of legitimate public concern such that defendants may not be liable for invasion of privacy under an unreasonable publication theory. Accordingly, there is no need to reach the other issue presented by defendants on appeal, which was whether the test result was already public at the time of the broadcast.