Opinion ID: 721376
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The disclosure of Eagle's criminal history

Text: 17 Eagle asserts that the officers violated his constitutional rights when they announced at the Jonesboro City Counsel meeting that he had previously pleaded guilty to felony theft of property. The Supreme Court has recognized that notions of substantive due process contained within the Fourteenth Amendment safeguard individuals from unwarranted governmental intrusions into their personal lives. Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 598 n. 23, 97 S.Ct. 869, 876 n. 23, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977). This right to privacy actually encompasses two separate types of interests. Id. at 598-99, 97 S.Ct. at 875-76. One is the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and another is the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions. Id at 599-600, 97 S.Ct. at 876 (footnote omitted). 18 Only the former concern, which has been characterized as the right to confidentiality, is at issue here. This protection against public dissemination of information is limited and extends only to highly personal matters representing the most intimate aspects of human affairs. Wade v. Goodwin, 843 F.2d 1150, 1153 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 854, 109 S.Ct. 142, 102 L.Ed.2d 114 (1988). [T]o violate [a person's] constitutional right of privacy the information disclosed must be either a shocking degradation or an egregious humiliation of her to further some specific state interest, or a flagrant bre[a]ch of a pledge of confidentiality which was instrumental in obtaining the personal information. Alexander v. Peffer, 993 F.2d 1348, 1350 (8th Cir.1993). To determine whether a particular disclosure satisfies this exacting standard, we must examine the nature of the material opened to public view to assess whether the person had a legitimate expectation that the information would remain confidential while in the state's possession. Sheets v. Salt Lake County, 45 F.3d 1383, 1387-88 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 74, 133 L.Ed.2d 34 (1995); see also Nixon v. Administrator of Gen. Servs., 433 U.S. 425, 457-58, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 2797-98, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977)(suggesting that an individual's legitimate expectation of privacy plays a pivotal role in this constitutional analysis). When the information is inherently private, it is entitled to protection. Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 5 v. City of Philadelphia, 812 F.2d 105, 116 (3d Cir.1987). 19 We acknowledge that the exact boundaries of this right are, to say the least, unclear. Scheetz v. The Morning Call, Inc., 946 F.2d 202, 206 (3d Cir.1991)([T]he contours of the confidentiality branch are murky.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1095, 112 S.Ct. 1171, 117 L.Ed.2d 417 (1992). In canvassing the relevant cases, however, we discovered that courts have traditionally been reluctant to expand this branch of privacy beyond those categories of data which, by any estimation, must be considered extremely personal. See Sheets, 45 F.3d at 1388 (noting privacy interest in information about spouse learned or observed through marriage); Fraternal Order of Police, 812 F.2d at 115 (recognizing that certain financial records should be afforded constitutional protection); United States v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 638 F.2d 570, 577 (3d Cir.1980)(extending privacy protection to medical records); York v. Story, 324 F.2d 450, 455 (9th Cir.1963)(We cannot conceive of a more basic subject of privacy than the naked body.), cert. denied, 376 U.S. 939, 84 S.Ct. 794, 11 L.Ed.2d 659 (1964). It appears clear to us that the facts over which Eagle asserts a privacy interest are fundamentally different from the information publicized in these other opinions. Instead, the situation in the case sub judice seems more analogous to circumstances in which courts have refused to recognize a legitimate expectation of privacy. See Nilson v. Layton City, 45 F.3d 369, 372 (10th Cir.1995)(Criminal activity is ... not protected by the right to privacy.); Holman v. Central Arkansas Broadcasting Co., 610 F.2d 542, 544 (8th Cir.1979)([N]o right to privacy is invaded when state officials allow or facilitate publication of an official act such as an arrest.); Baker v. Howard, 419 F.2d 376, 377 (9th Cir.1969)(holding that constitutional right is not implicated even when police officers circulate false rumors that person has committed a crime). 20 Far from being inherently private, the details of Eagle's prior guilty plea are by their very nature matters within the public domain. Accordingly, we decide without hesitation that Eagle has no legitimate expectation of privacy in this material. See Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469, 494-95, 95 S.Ct. 1029, 1046, 43 L.Ed.2d 328 (1975)([T]he interests in privacy fade when the information involved already appears on the public record.), quoted in McNally v. Pulitzer Publishing Co., 532 F.2d 69, 77 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 855, 97 S.Ct. 150, 50 L.Ed.2d 131 (1976). In reaching this conclusion, we underscore that Eagle pleaded guilty to a felony in open court. The Supreme Court has explained: 21 A trial is a public event. What transpires in the court room is public property. If a transcript of the court proceedings had been published, we suppose none would claim that the judge could punish the publisher for contempt.... Those who see and hear what transpired can report it with impunity. There is no special perquisite of the judiciary which enables it, as distinguished from other institutions of democratic government, to suppress, edit, or censor events which transpire in proceedings before it. 22 Craig v. Harney, 331 U.S. 367, 374, 67 S.Ct. 1249, 1254, 91 L.Ed. 1546 (1947); see also United States v. McNally, 485 F.2d 398, 402 (8th Cir.1973)(commenting upon public nature of trial), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 978, 94 S.Ct. 1566, 39 L.Ed.2d 874 (1974). In fact, the concept of open and public court proceedings is a foundational hallmark of our republic. Cf. U.S. Const. amend. VI (specifying that criminal defendants shall enjoy a public trial). It is evident, then, that Eagle can have virtually no expectation of privacy in the events surrounding his guilty plea. See Pulitzer Publishing, 532 F.2d at 77-78 (declining to find constitutional violation where facts disclosed in newspaper article had also been revealed in open court). By freely admitting his transgression in an intrinsically public forum, Eagle acknowledged before all his fellow citizens that he had committed a crime against the laws of Arkansas. He cannot now claim that a subsequent disclosure of this same information constituted a constitutional violation. 23 We are unpersuaded by Eagle's contention that this result should somehow be different because his criminal record was ultimately expunged. We observe initially that state laws, such as Arkansas' expungement provisions, do not establish the parameters of constitutional rights, like the right to privacy, that are grounded in substantive theories of due process. Bagley v. Rogerson, 5 F.3d 325, 328-29 (8th Cir.1993). Quite to the contrary, these precepts achieve their scope from deeply rooted notions of fundamental personal interests derived from the Constitution. 3 Nilson, 45 F.3d at 372 (quotation omitted). With these thoughts in mind, we express our approval of the Tenth Circuit's reasoning in Nilson: 24 An expungement order does not privatize criminal activity. While it removes a particular arrest and/or conviction from an individual's criminal record, the underlying object of expungement remains public. Court records and police blotters permanently document the expunged incident, and those officials integrally involved retain knowledge of the event. An expunged arrest and/or conviction is never truly removed from the public record and thus is not entitled to privacy protection. 25 Id. 26 Just as the judiciary cannot suppress, edit, or censor events which transpire in proceedings before it, Craig, 331 U.S. at 374, 67 S.Ct. at 1254, neither does the legislature possess the Orwellian power to permanently erase from the public record those affairs that take place in open court. Actually, we doubt this was the intention of the Arkansas General Assembly, for even in that state an expunged conviction can be used for certain purposes. See Gosnell v. State, 284 Ark. 299, 681 S.W.2d 385, 386-87 (1984)(deciding that an expunged conviction can be employed to enhance a person's sentence as a habitual offender); cf. Ark.Code Ann. § 16-90-901(b) (Michie Supp.1996)( '[E]xpunge' shall not mean the physical destruction of any records.). In any event, no governmental body holds the power to nullify the historical fact that in 1987 Eagle pleaded guilty to a felony. Thus, notwithstanding the subsequent expungement order, the officers' divulgence of this public information does not implicate the constitutional right to privacy. See Nilson, 45 F.3d at 372 (The disclosed information itself must warrant constitutional protection.). 27 We applaud Arkansas' commendable efforts to rehabilitate first time offenders, many of whom are probably in their youth, and to return those persons to the community without the disgraceful stigma of a criminal record. See Gosnell, 681 S.W.2d at 387 (discussing legislature's intention in passing comparable expungement provision). By the same token, we respect Eagle's endeavors, which appear to have been successful, to put his sordid past behind him and resume his life as a productive citizen. It is unfortunate that the JPD officers, in an ignominious attempt to undermine Eagle's salary survey results, felt it necessary to publicly trample upon another man's reputation. We must constantly remain aware, however, that the Constitution does not provide a remedy for every wrong that occurs in society. Rather, it is a framework for governance that protects those rights that are most cherished among free individuals. At the very least, the Constitution cannot act as a shield to protect Eagle from his own previous indiscretions. We therefore reject his attempts to elevate to a constitutional violation the officers' disclosure of his criminal history.