In the ruling, Judge Pauley dismissed that claim, likening the Facebook access instead to a phone wiretap in which one person on the call allows the government to monitor it -- a practice that has been ruled constitutional.

ENGADGET: Judge rules Facebook users can share friends' profiles with the feds

Mr. Charney said the Center for Constitutional Rights's call for a federal monitor over stop-and-frisk stemmed from its dissatisfaction with the settlement in a suit it filed against the NYPD following the 1999 police shooting death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant.

WSJ: Trial Begins Over NYPD's Frisk Policy

Despite criticism of the format, the call-in show took off, and by 1985, the Association of Media Psychologists was created to monitor for abuses.

WSJ: Popular psychologist Joyce Brothers dead at 85