CONSTITUTION WINS OVER HILLSBOROUGH SHERIFF

Earlier this month, I noted a Tampa Tribune story that Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee had filed a lawsuit seeking to learn the identity of several sheriff's office employees alleged to have posted messages on www.leoaffairs.com, a Web site co-founded by a retired Tampa police officer. Apparantly, Sheriff Gee was unhappy at the content of several posts which allegedly included vulgar references about women, racist remarks, and disparaging remarks about homosexuals.

Sheriff Gee had served subpoenas on the webmasters of the message board to provide the Internet protocols of posters believed to be HCSO employees.

But Circuit Judge William Levens ruled against the sheriff, saying that "It is my belief that the Constitution trumps the rules of civil procedure...Historically, we have had a number of unpopular ideas put out in the mainstream by anonymous writers.'' In his ruling, Levens called it one of the "messy parts" of constitutional rights.

The HCSO says it will appeal.