Anti-Abortion Activists Face Dubious Eavesdropping Charges in California
29th March 2017
Yesterday California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced 15 felony charges against two anti-abortion activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, in connection with their hidden-camera recordings of conversations with Planned Parenthood employees they sought to implicate in the illegal sale of fetal tissue. “The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society,” Becerra declared. “We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations.”
The right to freedom of the press, which Daleiden and Merritt claim they were exercising, is also foundational in a free democratic society, and it conflicts with California’s dubious definition of the right to privacy. That conflict is especially troubling when law enforcement officials use privacy as a pretext to attack political opponents, which is what seems to be happening in this case.
The situation can be clarified by supposing that the people involved were DemLegHump Media ‘investigative journalists’ — 60 Minutes, say — looking into some accusation of the Koch brothers. It is immediately obvious that it such a situation the politician(s) involved would hail it and castigate any such prosecution a direct threat to the Constitution.