Bloggers' First Amendment rights are being challenged once again, thanks to a lawsuit over a blog critical of a local police department. The city of Memphis, along with Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin, have subpoenaed AOL to force it to hand over all records associated with an @aim.com e-mail address, including registration information, billing information, names, e-mails, faxes, phone numbers, or IP addresses. The MPD may be facing an uphill battle with this lawsuit, however, as past cases have come out in favor of keeping anonymous bloggers anonymous and protecting their First Amendment rights.

The user(s) of the e-mail address post to a blog called MPD Enforcer 2.0, which has historically been critical of the Memphis Police Department's activities. The blog has been somewhat of a sore spot for the MPD, especially as it has gained popularity online (and boy, is it going to be popular now). Among other issues, the MPD Enforcer 2.0 has discussed sexual harassment within the police department, questionable ticketing practices, and officers allegedly violating citizens' (and prisoners') rights. Godwin is often discussed extensively in many of the posts due to his position as director of the department.

The case was filed in Chancery Court in Nashville on July 10, but most of the documents have been sealed. Still, "Dirk Diggler" at the MPD Enforcer 2.0 (the collective pseudonym of the bloggers who write on the site) has posted copies of the subpoena sent to AOL that seeks any and all identifying information for the blogger in question. In another blog post, Dirk Diggler wrote, "It pains us to believe that we live in America and a Director of Police Services can use his position (and possibly tax payers dollars) to launch a personal vendetta against this site and the 1st Amendment."

The Enforcer team is now being represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the litigating division of Public Citizen.

If the case proceeds, it seems unlikely that the MPD will be very successful in unearthing the information it wants. In 2005, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision requiring an ISP to turn over the identity of an anonymous blogger who was heavily critical of local politicians. The judge in the case ruled that the blogger's First Amendment right should be protected from intimidation. And, just this year, a California appeals court ruled that forum trolls are allowed to remain anonymous and exercise their First Amendment rights, too.

Free speech advocates believe that the same principles apply to this case. "You can complain about the government, and you should be able to do that without fear of retaliation or threatening actions on the part of the people in these positions," Electronic Privacy Information Center associate director Lillie Coney told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "I guess they've kind of annoyed them at some level, but you really don't want to see law enforcement or government resources spent in this way." ACLU executive director Hedy Weinberg agreed, adding that anonymous speech is Constitutionally protected and that the organization is interested in preserving the anonymity of the bloggers in question.