Judge James A. Doerty, Superior Court, Washington State, resurrected the restrictions on freedom of the press imposed by the Press Licensing Order, London 1643. He then arbitrarily incorporated them into a finding that bypasses US and Washington State constitutions.

Doerty has allowed his "clients" to misuse antiharassment laws by accepting their claim that newsgathering constitutes "surveillance" and reporting news defines as "harassment". By that, he has effectively denied the constitutional right to gather news to a journalist who has held an international press card for many years.

Now, Doerty has retroactively ordered censoring or deletion of published articles. He has placed a prior restraint on future articles by demanding signed news source waivers and ordering an unconstitutional surveillance prohibition. By that, he has arbitrarily censored this web site. He has also held the publisher in contempt of court and fined him $100.00/day - all without due process of law. Moreover, he has threatened to issue a bench arrest warrant for non-compliance.

Washington Court of Appeals questioned attorneys for both sides about the draconian and biased trial court decisions that caused the reporter to go to jail for an indeterminate period. The case attracted worldwide interest among journalists when they learned that a Seattle judge had jailed journalist Paul Trummel. He served 111 days (25 days in solitary confinement in the same section as Gary Ridgway, the Green River serial killer) for publishing constitutionally protected information contained in this site. [Oral Argument]

Revis[it]ed Code of Washington

RCW 42.17.25 Construction. The people of this state yield their sovereignty to all branches of government. In delegating their authority, they give the judiciary the right to decide what they should know and what they should not know. By that, the people remain uninformed so that they cannot control the statutory instruments that they have created. They must construe statutory meaning narrowly and interpret exemptions liberally to inhibit public policy effectively.