Private investigator takes case to state's highest court, attacks vexing ...
17.05.12
COLUMBIA — The chain of events that led to Ricky Gurley being seated quietly in the back row at a hearing of the Supreme Court of Missouri on Nov. 9 as his lawyer presented a First Amendment case in front of seven judges has caused the Columbia private investigator some grief.
If the court finds reason to side with him by declaring a few of Missouri’s state statutes unconstitutional, almost every Missouri resident who has ever committed the misdemeanor of Googling a candidate for office or looking up an old flame on Facebook will be protected from prosecution.
By reading a newspaper, doing an online search for a person or organization, or asking his or her neighbor what they did the night before, every citizen in the state has violated the statutes at some point, Gurley's lawyer, Jay Barnes, said.
“Yet it is left to the discretion of police, prosecutors and the courts as to which violations are subject to arrest and which are not,” Barnes wrote in his appellant’s brief .
Source: Columbia Missourian