Neal Horsley - The "Nuremberg Files"

The "Nuremberg Files"

The Nuremberg Files is a website that displays the names and locations of various doctors who perform abortions throughout the United States. They came under fire as controversial because they provided photos, addresses, and other personal data of abortion providers. They also updated the listings of those doctors who had been injured or murdered by "pro-life" individuals, indicating their approval for the elimination of the provider.

While the original site was shut down in 2002, it has reappeared more than once on other ISPs. Horsley has been forced to change his Internet service provider numerous times due to the site's content, and his website has been hacked on several occasions.

It has been stated that information from the Nuremberg Files site was used by James Charles Kopp to track down and kill Buffalo doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998. Kopp fled the country (becoming a fugitive in Canada) but allegedly maintained contact with Horsley while on the run. Kopp was later arrested in France and extradited to New York, where he is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

After Slepian's murder, Planned Parenthood's president Gloria Feldt denounced Horsley's website at a press conference. The publicity generated hundreds of thousands of hits (Horsley claims 400,000). Horsley was named as a co-conspirator in a successful civil suit, Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists, filed by Planned Parenthood over the information compiled by him and "Unwanted Posters" of doctors, which was judged by the court to constitute a threat of violence, even without an explicit call to violence. The U.S. Supreme court has twice refused to hear the case, upholding the ruling, but asking that the punitive damages be reconsidered. Punitive damages were reduced from $108 million to $4.7 million. The ruling also provides for $11 million in treble damages and $526,000 in compensatory damages.

As part of the judgment, Horsley was to take down the "Nuremberg Files" section of his website. The verdict was later overturned on appeal, and the files returned. The case was reheard en banc, and the court determined that the files constituted constitutionally unprotected "true threats". Karin Spaink ran a mirror of the site in the Netherlands for about a week after the district court decision. She ultimately decided to remove the mirror.