Diaz v. Oakland Tribune, Inc.
Court of Appeals of California
188 Cal. Rptr. 762 (1983)
A newspaper reporter, tipped off confidentially and using old police records, published that student body president Diaz (plaintiff) had undergone gender-affirming surgery years earlier, information Diaz had carefully kept private outside her immediate family; the jury awarded Diaz substantial compensatory and punitive damages against the Tribune and reporter Jones (defendants), but the trial court had instructed the jury using language from a case requiring the government to show a "compelling public need" to justify covert surveillance, rather than properly balancing free-speech and free-press interests against privacy.
Whether, in a cause of action for public disclosure of private fact, a plaintiff must prove that the information disseminated involved (1) public disclosure, (2) of a private fact, (3) which would be offensive and objectionable to a reasonable person, and (4) which is not of legitimate public concern.