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Should
the confidentiality of NIICA’s membership be a concern? A United
States Supreme Court decision eliminates this question.
In
a case that is almost 40-years-old but which is still good law,
NAACP v. Alabama (1958) 357 U.S. 449, the State of Alabama attempted
to force the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People to produce its membership lists. The Supreme Court held that
a production order of the identity of members of the organization
was a violation of the constitutional rights of those members. The
court stated that there was a "vital relationship between
freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations." The
immunity from disclosure is here so related to the right of members
to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate
freely with others in so doing (comes) within the protection of the
Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
Subsequent
cases have reaffirmed the rights of association and the right of
privacy in such associations. |
