Gates v. Discovery Communications, Inc.
Supreme Court of California
101 P.3d 552 (2004)
Gates (plaintiff) had served a prison sentence years earlier for being an accessory to a murder for hire, then lived a quiet, lawful life; more than a decade later, Discovery Communications (defendant) aired a documentary recounting the crime based entirely on public, official court records. Gates sued for defamation and invasion of privacy; the trial court dismissed the defamation claim as accurate but let the privacy claim proceed, while the Court of Appeal reversed on the privacy claim, finding the truthful, publicly-recorded disclosures protected by the First Amendment.
Whether the First Amendment bars an invasion-of-privacy claim based on publication of facts obtained from public, official records of a criminal proceeding.