I will assume that most people who have heard of Jame O'Keefe know he's a republican operative behind a few manipulated videos.
One, as noted below, involved ACORN and led to them being defunded and bankrupted. got him sued and today the suit was allowed to go forward.
This includes an interesting ruling on privacy.
Judge: Former ACORN worker can sue James O’Keefe
Former ACORN worker Juan Carlos Vera sued O’Keefe and Giles in 2010 for allegedly illegally taping their confidential conversation to make the now infamous “ACORN pimp” video. After the heavily-edited video was released in 2009, Vera was fired from ACORN and Congress later voted to defund the organization, which led to its bankruptcy.
California law that prohibits people from recording confidential conservations without the consent of all parties involved. The law excludes communications made in “any other circumstance in which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded” such as in public places.
I say interesting because it seems a judge sided with privacy. I'm not a lawyer so this may not mean much. I liked what I heard though.
O'Keefe was hoping for the 'no expectation of privacy in a public place, but the Judge squashed that:
U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz said that Vera “reasonably believed that the conversation was private because it was held in his office with no one else present, and he believed that no one else was listening in on his conversation.” He denied O’Keefe’s motion for a summary judgement.
Lorenz added that O’Keefe had “misled [Vera] to believe that the conversation would remain confidential by posing as a client seeking services from ACORN and asking whether their conversation was confidential.”
So if you secretly record people in their office where there's an implicit expectation of privacy you can't go whining about it once you're busted.
O'keefe's manipulated video made it seem like ACORN was involved with 'human trafficking" and were later cleared of any sort of wrongdoing.
But not before major damage had been done to ACORN, a vilified wingnut target.
So now the lawsuit can roll forward.
Sweet!
PS: really ridiculous pic of O'Keefe at the link.