Instead, the judge said, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which sets forth basic privacy protections in non-credit reporting situations, is the relevant federal law and it does allow states to enact more stringent privacy controls.
Oh, yes, cite the first amendment: But it is hard to see how you could persuade people that public funding for journalism is a good idea without more robust protection from invasions of privacy, abuses from dilatory or inaccurate reporting, and political bias.
Last weekend, Indiana University privacy researcher Chris Soghoian published a paper on the disturbing lack of reporting requirements for Internet data collection by law enforcement.