The authors contend that San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu was wrong in ordering online journalist Jack Poulson to take down a police report he had acquired legally.

Add San Francisco’s city attorney to the growing list of officials who can’t wrap their heads around the fact that journalists are constitutionally entitled to publish government records, even when the government doesn’t want them to.

Journalist Jack Poulson, executive editor of the nonprofit Tech Inquiry, accurately reported that a police report showed tech executive Maury Blackman was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in 2021. Blackman wasn’t charged and he was able to get his arrest record sealed, but Poulson obtained a copy of the incident report from an undisclosed source and published the disturbing details of the alleged victim’s version of events (which, as Poulson noted in his article, she recanted).

Poulson focuses his reporting on the relationship between tech companies, weapons manufacturers and the U.S. government. Blackman was the president and CEO of Premise Data, which lists government agencies among its clients on its website and which, according to the Wall Street Journal, pays app users to “unwittingly” provide “basic intelligence to the U.S. military.” In other words, he’s exactly the kind of character Poulson keeps his eyes on.

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Unfortunately, Blackman did what too many powerful people do: attack the messenger. He had his lawyers send takedown demands to Poulson and, when Poulson didn’t comply, he reportedly sued him for $25 million. We say “reportedly” because the lawsuit against Poulson, along........

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