John Lucas

Earlier this week, the European Court of Justice held that  Spanish lawyer’s “right to be forgotten” was violated when Google refused to eliminate links to embarrassing articles about him in its search results. In this interesting take on the case and its implications, Slate’s Eric Posner says the ruling is “perfectly sensible”, noting that it shows that “America is rigidly ideological about free speech, while Europe is pragmatic and flexible.”

It’s hard to imagine a “right to be forgotten” in the United States. The First Amendment will protect Google, or any other company, that resurfaces or publishes information that’s already public. This is especially true of official records, like a property auction, but also applies to pretty much anything that has not been found by a court to be defamatory. By contrast, the right to be forgotten allows courts to balance the public’s interest in knowing this information against the ordinary person’s right to be left alone.