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Florida court rules on disclosing SSN violates state constitution

Posted at 2004-08-17 08:08:04 by Declan McCullagh
in Politech category "privacy"

Here's an excerpt from a recent court opinion from the Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District (Case No. 2D02-4018):

FRED A. THOMAS and JOY S. THOMAS, Appellants, v. JIM SMITH, in his capacity as Property Appraiser of Pinellas County, Florida; DIANE NELSON, in her capacity as Tax Collector of Pinellas County, Florida; and JIM ZINGALE, in his capacity as Executive Director of the State of Florida, Department of Revenue, Appellees.

August 13, 2004, Opinion Filed

Fred A. Thomas and Joy S. Thomas (the Taxpayers) appeal the circuit court's order dismissing their fifth amended complaint with prejudice. The Taxpayers argue that section 196.011(1)(b), Florida Statutes [*2] (1997), which requires disclosure of the Taxpayers' social security numbers as a condition of obtaining a homestead tax exemption for their residence, violates their right to privacy under the Florida Constitution, the Privacy Act of 1974 (the federal Privacy Act), and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Florida and the United States Constitutions. We conclude that the circuit court's dismissal of the Privacy Act and equal protection claims is supported by the record, and we affirm the circuit court's order without further discussion to the extent that it dismissed those claims with prejudice. However, we agree with the Taxpayers that the circuit court erred in dismissing with prejudice their claim for an alleged violation of their right to privacy under the Florida Constitution. Therefore, we reverse the dismissal of the Taxpayers' fifth amended complaint in part, and we remand this case for further proceedings. [...remainder snipped...]

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