Ostergren Prevails In US District Court

Betty Ostergren has prevailed in the US District Court in Richmond. Ostergren sued the Attorney General of Virginia (Robert McDonnell) to block the new Virginia law that had been specifically crafted to prevent her from re-posting social security numbers on her website. She had been doing this to bring attention to the fact that the Virginia government was aiding identity thieves and was burying their head in the sand when the problem was pointed out to them.

I haven't had time to read the opinion (Link to PDF) in its entirety, but it appears the court agreed with her First Amendment argument that the state could not prevent her from republishing "public" information.

Will there be an appeal? Hopefully Virginia will just fix the problem that got us here in the first place: Posting SSNs on government websites.