Jessica Cutler Sex Blog Case Going To Trial

Posted on December 29, 2006

The Jessica Cutler sex blog lawsuit is about to go to trial, according to CNN. Robert Steinbuch, a counsel to Senator DeWine on the Judiciary Committee is suing Cutler for disclosing all the nasty little details of their secret trysts on her blog, the Washintonienne. So, what do you do when the embarassing details of your sex life get exposed on a blog? Why, you file a federal lawsuit which will ensure a lengthy, public trial which will further discuss those embarassing allegations. Of course.

The Guardian analyzes the case:

The Washington Post described Jessica Cutler as "our blog slut". The National Enquirer opined that she was "beautiful, untalented and morally corrupted". Now the blogger who wrote about her attempts to juggle affairs with six men while keeping a job as an aide to a senator has a new role: as the star defendant in a case that could help define what can and cannot be published in a blog.
Writing under the pseudonym Washingtonienne, Cutler described in detail the sexual intricacies of her life on the Hill. The blog, which Cutler claimed was intended to keep her friends up to date on her social life in Washington DC, achieved notoriety, and its author fame and a book contract, after it was brought to a wider public by another blog, Wonkette.
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The case dating from the 2004 blog is expected to go to trial soon. In establishing whether people who keep online journals are obliged to respect the privacy of those they interact with offline, the case could have a profound effect on the content of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. "Anybody who wants to reveal their own private life has a right to do that," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre. "It's a different question when you reveal someone else's private life."
Mr Steinbuch's attorney, Jonathan Rosen, told a judge in a pre-trial hearing that his client, who teaches in Arkansas, wants to restore his good name. "It's not funny and it's damaging," Mr Rosen said. "It's horrible, absolutely horrible." Cutler's attorney, Matthew Billips, had a different view: "I have no idea what he wants," he said. "He's never said, 'This is what I think should be done.'"
The judge, too, seemed bemused by the case. "I don't know why we're here in federal court to begin with," Judge Paul Friedman told attorneys in April. "I don't know why this guy thought it was smart to file a lawsuit and lay out all of his private, intimate details."

There is actually a serious issue for bloggers at stake in the case: how much information can a blogger share about friends, co-workers or other third parties without their permission? Bloggers will need to watch the outcome of this case closely. Alas, there promises to be a great deal of lurid testimony about handcuffs, spankings, prostitution and other goings on, which we will suffer through just to get to the judge's eventual ruling on the freedom of speech and privacy issues.