If you follow local and statewide policy-making, you’ll find no shortage of nuttiness. The bar for holding many positions of public trust is quite low, and there’s no particular guarantee that those holding elected positions at this level are familiar with the fundamentals.[ref]This charge can also be leveled at many members of the U.S. Congress, but the traps that must be run to be elected at the federal level eliminate most of the real loons – or at least discipline them enough to stay “on message.”[/ref]
Case in point: Frederick County (MD) Councilman Kirby Delauter, who has threatened a local reporter with legal action for using his name without permission.
The result is predictable. Thanks to the Streisand Effect, Kirby Delauter’s name is being used orders of magnitude more times, in ways he presumably does not like, and would not give his permission to – if he only had that right.
The mocking is particularly brutal in some quarters:
Delauter’s position is obviously ridiculous. The First Amendment gives anyone, reporters or otherwise, the right to comment and write about other people. And this right is particularly critical when it comes to government officials.
However, the sobering thing is that if Kirby Delauter decides to double down on stupid, he may well find a lawyer dumb enough to take his case. I talk to attorneys all the time who think – or at least argue – that some bastardization of the publicity rights doctrine permits people to control when and how their name is mentioned.