Full opinion text
OPINION AND ORDER SOFAER, District Judge: These class actions present a challenge to one of the scores of financial disclosure laws adopted by legislatures at all levels of American government since the political scandals of the Nixon Administration. Plaintiffs represent uniformed members of the New York City Fire and Police Departments who earn over $30,000 per year, and their spouses. They challenge the constitutionality of Local Law 48 of 1979, N.Y.C. Admin.Code § 1106-5.0 (hereinafter “LL 48”), a financial disclosure law enacted by the New York City Council and approved by the Mayor. Plaintiffs claim that LL 48, as it applies to them, violates their constitutional rights under the first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. Financial disclosure laws were recognized long before the “Watergate” scandal as a potentially useful device for discovering and deterring conflicts of interest. Post-Watergate developments, however, have dramatically expanded the number, scope, and impact of disclosure laws. Few jurisdictions had adopted disclosure laws prior to 1970; those that existed in general applied to officials holding policymaking positions, and required disclosure, limited to the government involved or to other interested persons, of financial facts relevant to the work of the reporting officer. Since then, hundreds of such laws have been adopted at all levels of government; they frequently apply to large groups of employees, including civil service personnel having little or no important policymaking power and they require disclosure to all members of the public, irrespective of any need to know or purpose in knowing, of all the financial facts concerning the reporting employee or official as well as those concerning all members of the reporting person’s family. The significance of these developments has been heightened by the large number of Americans now employed by government. Furthermore, since many financial disclosure laws affect not only the privacy of government employees but also the privacy of their spouses and other household members, the number of affected individuals is far greater than the number of employees actually covered. Financial disclosure laws thereby potentially invade the privacy of millions of Americans as individuals and in their marital and family relations. Legislatively mandated financial disclosure laws do not normally violate the first, fourth, or fifth amendments to the Constitution. If any constitutional principle provides protection against disclosure of private, financial information it is the concept of privacy. Justice Harlan, in his illuminating dissent in Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497, 540, 81 S.Ct. 1752, 1775, 6 L.Ed.2d 989 (1961), recognized that the Constitution is “the basic charter of our society, setting out in spare but meaningful terms the principies of government.” The Constitution must protect “legitimate expectations of privacy,” he wrote, not only against physical or electronic invasions but against “all unreasonable intrusion of whatever character.” Id. at 550, 81 S.Ct. at 1780. See also Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478, 48 S.Ct. 564, 572, 72 L.Ed. 944 (1928) (Brandéis, J., dissenting). More recently, the Supreme Court has indicated that the interest in avoiding disclosure of personal information is constitutionally protected. Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977); Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 97 S.Ct. 869, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977). Yet, while virtually every court that has considered financial disclosure laws has stated that the Constitution shields individual and family privacy as to financial matters, few courts have placed constitutional limits of any sort on legislatures requiring financial disclosures and providing that they be available to the public. Powerful reasons explain why courts have properly been restrained in reviewing disclosure laws on privacy grounds. The right of privacy, as protected by common law and the Constitution, relates to private revelations or direct public regulation of intimate activity, rather than to disclosures by government of information obtained and published for some public purpose. Financial disclosure laws are analogous to long accepted, lawful techniques for obtaining information reasonably necessary for governmental objectives. Furthermore, the objectives sought by financial disclosure laws are in principle unassailable and theoretically justify a broad scope of inquiry. Honest government is so patently a worthy objective, and the capacity for venality in human behavior is so profound and ingenious, that virtually any disclosure law however intrusive might be rationally justifiable. Financial disclosure laws also derive considerable strength from the benefits widely felt to be derived from openness and from an informed public. Justice Brandéis, an eloquent advocate of privacy, said: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” Brandéis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It 62 (1914), quoted in Plante v. Gonzalez, 575 F.2d 1119, 1127 n. 13 (5th Cir.1978). The interest in an informed citizenry also supports a legislature’s decision to adopt financial disclosure legislation. An ° informed public is essential to the nation’s success, and a fundamental objective of the first amendment. See Bed Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 390, 89 S.Ct. 1794, 1806, 23 L.Ed.2d 371 (1969); New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 269, 84 S.Ct. 710, 720, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964). The absence of any clear constitutional provision expressly protecting privacy no doubt adds to the judiciary’s reluctance to fashion limits on laws justified as seeking to make government more ethical. None of the more specific and relatively well-defined provisions of the Bill of Rights applies to financial disclosure legislation. Courts are therefore left to consider possible limits based only upon the general right of privacy, an interest that permeates our constitutional scheme but finds no specific expression. While some former Justices of the Supreme Court could peer into the constitutional penumbra and discern with confidence the contours of the privacy right, less visionary readings now prevail. The sweeping claims generally advanced by plaintiffs challenging such laws have made judicial involvement even less tenable than* the interests at stake might warrant. Courts have rarely if ever been provided the evidence in specific cases that might establish the propriety of limited protections against the overbroad use of an otherwise proper legislative device. To the extent plaintiffs in these cases have presented a facial attack on LL 48, their challenge must fail. The Supreme Court’s affirmances without opinion of three decisions upholding disclosure laws leave no room for an attack on LL 48’s constitutionality as a whole. But plaintiffs in this case insisted, refreshingly, that the Court consider their particular claims, and not merely pass on the law as an abstract exercise. They produced comprehensive evidence of the law’s purposes, its legislative background, its scope, its expected effects, and its potential utility. They also proved facts about themselves as municipal servants and human beings, the jobs they do, their record of performance, their fears and feelings. Plaintiffs introduced strong evidence to support their claims that they should be relieved entirely of the burdens and intrusions created by LL 48. One could reasonably conclude from their evidence that LL 48 is a thoughtless and unwise intrusion by the City into the lives of many of its most valued employees. But the City is constitutionally free to abuse its employees and their families, so long as in doing so it is seeking to achieve a proper objective through a defensible means. Furthermore, with respect to the law’s obligation that plaintiffs file the forms required by LL 48, plaintiffs lack any strong expectation of privacy, since such information is already available to the Fire and Police Departments, and the City was able to establish that disclosures of the information to City government might help deter and detect conflicts of interest and venality. Plaintiffs did succeed, however, in establishing that on the present record the public disclosure aspect of the challenged law would interfere substantially with their privacy interests in autonomy and confidentiality. The law contains a mechanism that would enable covered employees to seek to have highly personal matters kept from public view. But that mechanism would itself be greatly destructive of privacy. Plaintiffs also proved that the public disclosure component of LL 48 serves no defensible purpose with respect to plaintiffs in this case. Public disclosure serves the useful purposes of deterring and detecting corruption, of enabling the public to perform its legislative and elective roles, and of increasing public confidence in and knowledge about government by enabling the public to evaluate all the facts relevant to public issues, including the financial facts about government policymakers. But these purposes lacked any evidentiary support or rational basis in this particular case. Plaintiffs are not elected, and they lack policy-making roles; rather, they are civil servants who achieved the lower managerial ranks of their agencies through success on competitive exams, after many years of service. The law’s purpose as to these plaintiffs appears to be disclosure for disclosure’s sake. On the basis of the findings and conclusions that follow in this opinion, therefore, the City’s financial disclosure law is upheld insofar as it requires disclosure to the City government of the family financial data sought from the plaintiff groups. The law is invalid, however, insofar as it mandates disclosure of all the information collected from the plaintiff groups, to any person irrespective of purpose or need. I. LL 48 requires, on pain of criminal penalty, that all covered individuals file annual financial statements with the City. The ordinance covers candidates for City office, most elected and appointed officials, and all civil service employees of the City who earn $30,000 per year or more. LL 48 requires that these people disclose the following information: “the name, address and type of practice of any professional organization in which the person reporting or his spouse’’ has any interest “from which income of one thousand dollars or more was derived during the preceding calendar year”, § 1106-5.0b, subd. 1; the source of items “received or accrued during the preceding calendar year” by the employee or his or her spouse constituting income for services rendered of $1,000 or more, § 1106-5.0b, subd. 2; each capital gain of $1,000 or more from a single source, other than from the sale of the reporting person’s residence, id.; reimbursement for expenditures of $1,000 or more “in each instance,” and honoraria or gifts from a single source aggregating $500 or more, id.; each creditor to whom the employee or spouse owed $500 or more for 90 days or more during the preceding year, § 1106-5.0b, subd. 3; the value and address of each investment or parcel of real property worth $20,000 or more held by the person reporting or spouse, § 1106-5.0b, subd. 4; and each trust or other fiduciary relation in which the employee or spouse held a beneficial interest having a value of $20,-000 or more, § 1106-5.0b, subd. 5. The identity, source, and amount of each of the foregoing must be reported in detail. §§ 1106-5.0b, subd. 1-6. The completed forms are filed with the City Clerk, who must automatically make them available to any member of the public, § 1106-5.0c, unless the employee has requested the City’s Board of Ethics in writing that a specific item be withheld because public disclosure of it would constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy, § 1106.5d. No action is taken on privacy claims until a request for inspection of a particular form is filed by a member of the public. When a request for inspection is made, the law requires that the public members of the Board of Ethics rule on all privacy claims after considering three factors: whether the item is of “a highly personal nature”; whether it “in any way relates to the duties of the position held by such person”; and whether it “involves an actual or potential conflict of interest.” § 1106-5d, subd. 2. The Board must render a written decision and forward it to the City Clerk. The Clerk may then make the form requested available for disclosure, except those items exempted from disclosure by a decision of the Board. § 1106-5d, subd. 4. LL 48 is a modified version of a disclosure law passed by the City Council in 1975, Local Law 1 of 1975 (“LL 1”). The New York courts declared the public disclosure provisions of LL 1 invalid because the law did not safeguard privacy interests. Hunter v. City of New York, 58 A.D.2d 136, 396 N.Y.S.2d 186 (1st Dep’t 1977), aff’d, 44 N.Y.2d 708, 405 N.Y.S.2d 455, 376 N.E.2d 928 (1978). LL 48 differs from LL 1 principally in that the Council added the “privacy mechanism” just described. After passage of LL 48 in 1979, certain members of the New York City Fire Department and their spouses filed one of the instant actions to enjoin its application to them. Slevin v. City of New York, No. 79 Civ. 4524 (S.D.N.Y.). The plaintiff classes in Slevin include Fire Department Battalion Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, Medical Officers, and the spouses of these three officer classes. The officers involved are all uniformed city employees, occupying competitive civil service positions, who are required to file financial disclosure reports because they earn over $30,000 annually. This Court preliminarily enjoined application of LL 48 to these plaintiffs on September 6, 1979. Slevin v. City of New York, 477 F.Supp. 1051 (S.D.N.Y.1979). Just prior to issuance of that preliminary injunction, certain members of the New York City Police Department and their spouses filed the companion action, Barry v. City of New York, No. 79 Civ. 4627 (S.D.N.Y.), challenging LL 48 as applied to them. The Barry plaintiffs also represent four groups: Captains, Lieutenants, Police Surgeons, and their spouses. All the officers represented are uniformed city employees, occupying competitive civil service positions, who earn in excess of $30,000 annually. On September 10, 1979, the preliminary injunction issued in Slevin was expanded to include the Barry plaintiffs. The matters were consolidated, and tried on the merits, after which the parties briefed the issues prior to submitting the case for judgment. II. Defendants urge the outright rejection of plaintiffs’ claims, because the Supreme Court has dismissed for lack of a substantial federal question three appeals from decisions by state supreme courts upholding financial disclosure laws. Montgomery County v. Walsh, 274 Md. 502, 336 A.2d 97 (1975), app. dismissed, 424 U.S. 901, 96 S.Ct. 1091, 47 L.Ed.2d 306 (1976); Fritz v. Gorton, 83 Wash.2d 275, 517 P.2d 911 (en banc), app. dismissed, 417 U.S. 902, 94 S.Ct. 2596, 41 L.Ed.2d 208 (1974); Stein v. Howlett, 52 Ill.2d 570, 289 N.E.2d 409 (1972), app. dismissed, 412 U.S. 925, 93 S.Ct. 2750, 37 L.Ed.2d 152 (1973). These dismissals are dispositions on the merits, binding on “the precise issues presented and necessarily decided by those actions.” Mandel v. Bradley, 432 U.S. 173, 176, 97 S.Ct. 2238, 2240, 53 L.Ed.2d 199 (1977) (per curiam); see Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 344, 95 S.Ct. 2281, 2289, 45 L.Ed.2d 223 (1975); Port Authority Bondholders Protective Comm. v. Port of New York Authority, 387 F.2d 259, 262 n. 3 (2d Cir.1967). They do indeed foreclose several of plaintiffs’ claims, especially in conjunction with other Supreme Court decisions. But they cannot fairly be said to preclude all of plaintiffs’ challenges. Here, as in Plante v. Gonzalez, 575 F.2d 1119, 1125 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1129, 99 S.Ct. 1047, 59 L.Ed.2d 90 (1979), the statute at issue differs from each of the statutes upheld in those cases, and the nature of the challenge made in this case differs in important respects from the challenges to those statutes. All three dismissals involved facial challenges to the disclosure laws at issue; here, plaintiffs challenge LL 48 as it applies to them. Furthermore, none of the dismissed cases focused on the constitutionality of requiring public disclosure by employees with little or no policymaking authority. In Fritz v. Gorton, supra, only disclosure by elected officials, candidates for elective office, and lobbyists was at issue. The ordinance challenged in Montgomery County v. Walsh, supra, unlike LL 48, provided for disclosure by employees only “where it is determined by designated authority that it is ‘desirable to promote the trust and confidence of the citizens of the County,’ ” and exempted from the filing requirements persons whose job responsibilities posed little likelihood of conflict of interest or corruption. 336 A.2d at 102. The Illinois Supreme Court’s opinion in Stein v. Howlett, supra, was based entirely upon state law, and, as in Fritz and Montgomery County, the appeal to the United States Supreme Court was dismissed in 1973, before the Supreme Court’s decisions in Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 97 S.Ct. 869, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977) and Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977), which both recognized a constitutional “interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters.” Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. at 599, 97 S.Ct. at 876. The plaintiff classes in this case have demonstrated that public disclosure of their finances will substantially and adversely affect recognized privacy interests, while serving no substantial public purpose. The Supreme Court has not considered the public disclosure aspects of disclosure laws on a full evidentiary record, revealing both the effects of and need for disclosure to the government and to the public of private information obtained from particular groups of employees. Consequently, although the dismissals for lack of a substantial federal question may “caution ... against finding [LL 48] unconstitutional”, Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1126, this Court must “undertake an independent examination of the merits,” Mandel v. Bradley, supra, 432 U.S. at 177, 97 S.Ct. at 2241. III. Plaintiffs argue that LL 48 infringes their fourth amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, their fifth amendment right against compelled self-incrimination, their first amendment rights of free speech and association, and their fourteenth (or ninth) amendment right to privacy, that is, their right not to be deprived of the liberty interest in privacy without due process of law. Only the privacy claim has merit, and only to the extent delineated below. A. The Fourth Amendment The fourth amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures ... . ” U.S.Const.amend. IY. “[T]he evil the amendment was designed to prevent was broader than the abuse of a general warrant,” Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1379, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), though the amendment has not been “translated into a general constitutional ‘right to privacy,’ ” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 350, 88 S.Ct. 507, 510, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). The fourth amendment seems applicable to governmental acquisition of information whatever means are chosen, see generally California Bankers Ass’n v. Shultz, 416 U.S. 21, 59-63, 94 S.Ct. 1494, 1516-18, 39 L.Ed.2d 812 (1974) (discussing relevance of fourth amendment to reporting income as required by federal tax statutes); certainly it applies “to the orderly taking under compulsion of process,” United States v. Morton Salt Co., 338 U.S. 632, 651, 70 S.Ct. 357, 368, 94 L.Ed. 401 (1950). “[T]he Fourth Amendment protects people, not places, ... and whenever an individual may harbor a reasonable ‘expectation of privacy,’ ... he is entitled to be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 9, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1873, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) (citations omitted). Plaintiffs have not argued that the fourth amendment limits the uses to which information legitimately “seized” may be put. Therefore, plaintiffs do not contend that the amendment is directly relevant to the provisions permitting public access to the forms. See Slevin Plaintiffs’ Post-Trial Memorandum at 72-74. Insofar as the City has required filing, however, plaintiffs argument fails because they lack the requisite expectation of privacy. See Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 602, 97 S.Ct. at 877. An employee in the upper echelons of the Fire or Police Department, or his or her spouse, cannot reasonably expect to keep his financial dealings and holdings, or his address, or any other information required by LL 48, secret from his employer. Plaintiffs established at trial that all of the information sought by LL 48 is available to the Fire and Police Departments through confidential, in-house inquiries. Transcript of Trial (Nov. 6, 7, 12, 13, 1980) at 524-25 [hereinafter “T.”]; Transcript of Trial (Dec. 3, 1980) at 60-68 [hereinafter “T.D.”]. If plaintiffs had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the filing regulations would nevertheless satisfy the fourth amendment. In this context the amendment demands only reasonableness, i.e., that the information sought be “particularly described” and relevant to an inquiry the investigating agency is authorized to make, and that the legislative judgment have a reasonable basis. California Bankers Ass’n v. Shultz, supra, 416 U.S. at 62-63, 94 S.Ct. at 1518; Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 536-37, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 1734, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967); Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, 327 U.S. 186, 208-09, 66 S.Ct. 494, 505, 90 L.Ed. 614 (1946); O’Brien v. DiGrazia, 544 F.2d 543, 546 (1st Cir.1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 914, 97 S.Ct. 2173, 53 L.Ed.2d 223 (1977). The uniform application of the filing regulations leaves no room for discretionary abuse by enforcement officers and therefore requires no warrant to curb narrowly focused intrusions into the privacy rights of those regulated. See Camara v. Municipal Court, supra, 387 U.S. at 530-32, 87 S.Ct. at 1732; See v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541, 544, 87 S.Ct. 1737, 1739, 18 L.Ed.2d 943 (1967); cf. Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 464 n. 26, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 2801 n. 26, 53 L.Ed. 867 (1977). The information sought by the forms is uniform, described in detail, and relevant in general to the proper governmental objectives of investigating and deterring conflicts of interest. While the scope of inquiry mandated by LL 48 is broad, it cannot be equated with a general warrant, since each type of information sought has logical relevance to valid government objectives. B. The Fifth Amendment Plaintiffs also assert that LL 48 “implicates the Fifth Amendment protection against compelled testimony that may be self-incriminating.” Slevin Plaintiffs’ Post-Trial Memorandum at 74-75. Methods employed by the state in requiring disclosures must be “consistent with the limitations created by the privilege.” Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 44, 88 S.Ct. 697, 700, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). LL 48 affixes a criminal penalty to failure to respond to the questionnaire, so it exerts real compulsion upon covered employees. See Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547, 562, 12 S.Ct. 195, 197, 35 L.Ed. 1110 (1892). Further, LL 48 elicits “testimony” rather than requiring production of pre-made financial records. See Fisher v. United States, 425 U.S. 391, 408, 96 S.Ct. 1569, 1579, 48 L.Ed.2d 39 (1976). Where the information an individual is asked to provide is “testimony which might tend to show that [he] had committed a crime,” Counselman v. Hitchcock, supra, 142 U.S. at 562, 12 S.Ct. at 197; see Lefkowitz v. Turley, 414 U.S. 70, 77, 94 S.Ct. 316, 322, 38 L.Ed.2d 274 (1973), the filer is entitled to assert his or her privilege against self-incrimination. But the fact that the privilege might be available to individuals within the plaintiff classes does not invalidate the law. Like the fourth amendment, the self-incrimination clause of the fifth amendment is not “a general protector of privacy.... [T]he Fifth Amendment protects against ‘compelled self-incrimination, not [the disclosure of] private information.’ ” Fisher v. United States, supra, 425 U.S. at 401, 96 S.Ct. at 1576 (quoting United States v. Nobles, 422 U.S. 225, 233 n. 7, 95 S.Ct. 2160, 2167 n. 7, 45 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975)). Thus, the privilege does not justify refusal to file an income tax return simply because certain disclosures might tend to incriminate. United States v. Sullivan, 274 U.S. 259, 47 S.Ct. 607, 71 L.Ed. 1037 (1927). This is not a case like Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), or Grosso v. United States, 390 U.S. 62, 88 S.Ct. 709, 19 L.Ed.2d 906 (1968), where the compulsory disclosure applied only to a group “the great majority of whom [are] likely to incriminate themselves by responding.” Garner v. United States, 424 U.S. 648, 660, 96 S.Ct. 1178, 1185, 47 L.Ed.2d 370 (1976). Plaintiffs exerted much effort at trial successfully establishing that only a small proportion of class members are engaged in criminal activity. True, the disclosure forms at issue are not directed to the public at large; but, as with tax returns, “[t]he great majority of persons” filing these forms will “not incriminate themselves” by filing. Garner v. United States, supra, 424 U.S. at 661, 96 S.Ct. at 1186. Nor does LL 48 improperly coerce plaintiffs to waive the privilege. As with income tax statutes, if the form calls for answers that a particular filer is privileged from making he can raise the objection on the form. United States v. Sullivan, supra, 274 U.S. at 263, 47 S.Ct. at 607. A conviction under LL 48 for failure to respond “cannot be based on a valid exercise of the privilege.” Garner v. United States, supra, 424 U.S. at 662, 96 S.Ct. at 1186. “As long as a valid and timely claim of privilege is available as a defense” for failure to file, the fifth amendment is not violated. Id. at 665, 96 S.Ct. at 1188. Moreover, plaintiffs could not be discharged from their jobs solely because they claimed the privilege on the form, because the form does not contain “questions specifically, directly, and narrowly relating to the performance of [their] official duties.... ” Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 278, 88 S.Ct. 1913, 1916, 20 L.Ed.2d 1082 (1968) (footnote omitted). Neither the statute nor the questionnaire makes the prohibited suggestion that a failure to waive the privilege will result in dismissal. See Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 497-98, 87 S.Ct. 616, 618, 17 L.Ed.2d 562 (1967). Finally, the questionnaire’s failure to inform filers of the availability of the privilege is not a constitutional violation, since the ordinance is not part of a focused investigation. See Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 490-91, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 1764, 12 L.Ed.2d 977 (1964). C. The First Amendment [10] Plaintiffs have failed to establish that LL 48 will significantly inhibit the exercise of their first amendment rights of speech and association. LL 48 was not adopted for the purpose of requiring disclosure of organizational membership. Statutes that require such disclosures have been held to violate the first amendment where they were found to have been intended to restrain the freedom of association. See, e.g., Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U.S. 293, 81 S.Ct. 1333, 6 L.Ed.2d 301 (1961); Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 81 S.Ct. 247, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960); NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson 357 U.S. 449, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488 (1958). Here, as Judge Wisdom noted in Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1132, “memberships, associations, and beliefs are revealed, if at all, only tangentially.” The law requires disclosure of certain assets, income, debts, gifts, and reimbursements, and therefore neither focuses on some political or religious financial relationships as opposed to others, nor discriminates among those political or religious affiliations that might be revealed. Moreover, the filing requirements do not seek “to expose” first amendment activities “for the sake of exposure,” Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 200, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1185, 1 L.Ed.2d 1273 (1957), or specifically for the purpose of revealing political associations, Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Comm., 372 U.S. 539, 558, 83 S.Ct. 889, 899, 9 L.Ed.2d 929 (1963), but rather for the sake of revealing potential financial conflicts of interest or financial indices of corruption, whatever their source. To establish a first amendment violation in these circumstances, plaintiffs must show that the law would unreasonably inhibit the exercise of their first amendment rights. They failed to demonstrate that “economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility,” Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 69-70, 96 S.Ct. 612, 658, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976) (per curiam), would befall them because of the revelations of protected activity in the form, or that in even a single instance protected activity would be foreclosed. Conceivably, “in some particular situations,” where for example a real threat of retaliation would attend a specific disclosure, “vigorous application of [LL 48] might implicate first amendment freedoms”; but on this record “this threat is too remote to raise the issue.” Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1132-33; cf. Buckley v. Valeo, supra, 424 U.S. at 70, 74, 96 S.Ct. at 659, 661. IV. Plaintiffs’ strongest argument for protection is under the fourteenth amendment’s guarantee of the substantive liberty interest in privacy. The right to privacy is still undefined. Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 598-99 & nn. 23, 24, 97 S.Ct. 869, 876 & nn. 23, 24, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977). See generally, Fried, Privacy, 77 Yale L.J. 475 (1968); Gerety, Redefining Privacy, 12 Harv.C.R.-C.L. L.Rev. 234 (1977); Kurland, The Private I, University of Chicago Magazine 7, 8 (autumn 1976); Parker, A Definition of Privacy, 27 Rutgers L.Rev. 275 (1974); Posner, The Right of Privacy, 12 Ga.L.Rev. 393 (1978). But it clearly protects “two different kinds of interests.... One is the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and another is the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions.” Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 598-600, 97 S.Ct. at 875-877. Those two interests have been labeled interests in “confidentiality” and “autonomy.” Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1128. The autonomy branch of privacy, the more developed of the two, creates a zone of freedom from government restrictions on personal choice in “matters relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education.” Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 713, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1166, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976). Cases involving government regulation of these matters establish that such laws must satisfy exacting judicial scrutiny. See, e.g., Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374, 383, 98 S.Ct. 673, 679, 54 L.Ed.2d 618 (1978); Moore v. City of East Cleveland, 431 U.S. 494, 499, 97 S.[Ct. 1932, 1935, 52 L.Ed.2d 531 (1977) (plurality opinion); Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 155-56, 93 S.Ct. 705, 727, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). In Plante v. Gonzalez, the Fifth Circuit held that “[financial privacy is not within the autonomy branch of the right to privacy.” 575 F.2d at 1132; accord O’Brien v. DiGrazia, 544 F.2d 543, 545 (1st Cir.1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 914, 97 S.Ct. 2173, 53 L.Ed.2d 223 (1977). Financial regulation is widespread in this society, and its direct effects make the “indirect effects caused by financial disclosure pale by comparison.” 575 F.2d at 1131. While noting the Supreme Court’s recognition in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 66, 96 S.Ct. 612, 657, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), that financial transactions can reveal much about a person’s activities, associations, and beliefs, the Fifth Circuit in Plante found that personal finances cannot “be protected as incident to protection of the family.. .. There is no doubt that financial disclosure may affect a family, but the same can be said of any government action .... [A]ny influence does not rise to the level of a constitutional problem.” 575 F.2d at 1131. The analysis in Plante of the autonomy branch as it relates to financial disclosure is unassailable to the extent that it finds no “presumptive immunity from regulation” for financial affairs. Henkin, Privacy and Autonomy, 74 Colum.L.Rev. 1410, 1411 (1974). The autonomy cases do not rest on what Professor Henkin calls “hard-core privacy,” or what people commonly mean by privacy. Regulation of marital affairs, or what one chooses to read, or how one wants to raise one’s children, is suspect because of the matters sought to be controlled, not because the regulations intrude into bedrooms, minds, or bodies. Id. at 1424-25. “Financial affairs” in general has never been regarded under our Constitution as an area of life that in itself is so fundamental to liberty that regulation is automatically deemed suspect. Such regulation is squarely within the police power, and as an abstract proposition is if anything presumptively valid. Financial disclosure may nevertheless substantially, albeit indirectly, affect recognized autonomy interests. The characterization — “financial” privacy — should not be permitted, by verbal trick, to relegate substantial autonomy claims to the constitutional status reserved for “economic prob- lems, business affairs, or social conditions.” See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 482, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 1680, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965). Financial privacy is not an “economic” as opposed to a “personal” right. Financial facts are sometimes protected under the Constitution for essentially the same reasons that homes are protected — not because finances are “property,” but because protecting financial affairs is in some situations a necessary means for protecting the very “personal” right of privacy. See Nixon v. Administrator of Genera] Services, supra, 433 U.S. at 529, 97 S.Ct. at 2833 (Burger, C.J., dissenting) (privacy of “purely private matters of family, property, investments, diaries” is interest of the highest order). Therefore, even though the adverse effects of government action on financial privacy are ordinarily insufficient to justify invoking a presumptive immunity, but see Comment, Privacy Limits On Financial Disclosure Laws: Pruning Plante v. Gonzalez, 54 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 601, 613-16 (1979), a court must still decide in each case what significance to give those effects. Autonomy and confidentiality interests are sometimes simultaneously affected, as in this case, and must be simultaneously considered, albeit by a less exacting standard than strict scrutiny. Neither should be disregarded because of a mechanical application of current, bifurcated privacy doctrine. The right to privacy’s confidentiality branch is “the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters.” Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 599, 97 S.Ct. at 876. Protection for legitimate expectations of privacy is premised on- concern about harms caused by their violation. See California Bankers Ass’n v. Shultz, supra, 416 U.S. at 78-79, 94 S.Ct. at 1525 (Powell, J., concurring); City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. Young, 2 Cal.3d 259, 270, 85 Cal.Rptr. 1, 9, 466 P.2d 225, 233 (1970). But, as Judge Wisdom said in Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1135, “[w]hen a legitimate expectation of privacy exists, violation of privacy is harmful without any concrete consequential damages. Privacy of personal matters is an interest in and of itself, protected constitutionally... . ” The Supreme Court has on two occasions expressly considered the confidentiality branch of privacy. In Whalen v. Roe, supra, the Court upheld New York State’s prescription drug reporting requirements. The Court did not establish a standard to be applied to the interest in avoiding public disclosure of personal matters, because it was persuaded that the law did not on its face pose “a sufficiently grievous threat to [the] interest to establish a constitutional violation.” 429 U.S. at 600, 97 S.Ct. at 877. The statute did not make the disclosed personal information available to the public, but rather carefully limited access to authorized state employees under a strict duty to keep it confidential. Id. at 597, 97 S.Ct. at 875. Further, the law provided for destruction of the records after five years. Id. at 593, 97 S.Ct. at 873. In essence, the law did not affect a reasonable expectation of privacy, because limited disclosure of potentially embarrassing medical information is “often an essential part of modern medical practice.” Id. at 602, 97 S.Ct. at 877. The disclosures mandated differed little “from a host of other unpleasant invasions of privacy that are associated with many facets of health care.” Id.; see id. at 607, 97 S.Ct. at 880 (Brennan, J., concurring). Any doubt about the constitutional standing of the interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters remaining after Whalen v. Roe, supra, see id. at 608-09, 97 S.Ct. at 881 (Stewart, J., concurring) (arguing that prior cases do not recognize the right), was removed by Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977). In Nixon, the former President challenged the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, which provided for the disposition of great numbers of documents and tape recordings amassed during his presidency. Comingled among many official documents in which Mr. Nixon conceded he had no privacy interest were a comparatively small number of his private communications and his wife’s private files. Id. at 459, 97 S.Ct. at 2798. The Act and implementing regulations provided that professional archivists would examine all the materials, remove and return to the plaintiff all private matters, and preserve the official documents for the government and the public. The Court determined that Mr. Nixon, unlike the Whalen plaintiffs, had “a legitimate expectation of privacy” in some of the materials, id. at 465, 97 S.Ct. at 2801, and instead of employing the “rational basis” standard, appropriate where no constitutionally protected right is at issue, the Court balanced the interests involved and upheld the law. The public interest in preserving the public documents was “important”; the screening was “essential” if the public documents were to be preserved and Mr. Nixon’s privacy respected; the personal items would not be available to the public; and the government archivists’ record for discretion was “unblemished.” Id. at 455-65, 97 S.Ct. at 2796. Whalen and Nixon make reasonably clear that actions affecting the confidentiality strand of privacy are subject to judicial scrutiny more exacting than “rational basis” review, though the precise standard of review remains a subject of dispute. Some state courts have applied variants of the “strict scrutiny” test to such statutes. E.g., City of Carmel-by-the-Sea v. Young, supra. Plaintiffs, although labeling it a “balancing analysis,” Slevin Plaintiffs’ Post-Trial Memorandum at 82, argue for strict scrutiny, claiming that to be constitutional LL 48 must “promote a compelling state interest and be the means to accomplish that purpose that is least intrusive of the constitutionally-protected interest.” Id. at 76. This approach seems inappropriate in reviewing statutes for breach-of-confidentiality claims. As Judge Wisdom stated for the Fifth Circuit: In equal protection cases the Supreme Court has warned against giving heightened attention to cases involving new “fundamental interests.” The Court has avoided proclaiming such a standard in the two cases raising the [confidentiality branch of privacy] issue in which it issued opinions, Whalen v. Roe and Nixon v. Administrator of General Services. It has dismissed for want of a substantial federal question three eases raising the question in financial disclosure contexts .... Subjecting financial disclosure laws to the same scrutiny accorded laws impinging on autonomy rights, such as marriage, contraception, and abortion, would draw into question many common forms of regulations, involving disclosure to the public and disclosure to government bodies. At the same time, scrutiny is necessary. The Supreme Court has clearly recognized that the privacy of one’s personal affairs is protected by the Constitution. Something more than mere rationality must be demonstrated. Otherwise, public disclosure requirements ... could be extended to anyone, in any situation. Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, 575 F.2d at 1134 (citations omitted). But see Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 606, 97 S.Ct. at 879 (Brennan, J., concurring) (“Broad dissemination by state officials of [personal] information ... would presumably be justified only by compelling state interests.”) Virtually every court considering the question has, at least nominally, applied some form of intermediate scrutiny. Nixon appears to use a balancing approach, 433 U.S. at 456-57, 97 S.Ct. at 2796, as defendants concede most lower courts have done. Defendants’ Post-Trial Memorandum at 50. See, e.g., Stein v. Howlett, supra, 289 N.E.2d at 413; Illinois State Employees Ass’n v. Walker, 57 Ill.2d 512, 315 N.E.2d 9, 15, cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1058, 95 S.Ct. 642, 42 L.Ed.2d 656 (1974); Montgomery County v. Walsh, supra; Hunter v. City of New York, supra. In Plante v. Gonzalez, supra, and in Duplantier v. United States, 606 F.2d 654 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1076, 101 S.Ct. 854, 66 L.Ed.2d 798 (1981) the Fifth Circuit found that challenges to financial disclosure laws require courts to apply a balancing test “to determine whether the legitimate governmental interests furthered . .. outweigh [the] incidental intrusion upon plaintiffs’ privacy.” Duplantier v. United States, 606 F.2d at 670. Both Plante and Duplantier, however, also suggested a similar but potentially more restrictive test requiring that such laws “substantially further important governmental interests.” Duplantier, 606 F.2d at 672; see Plante, 575 F.2d at 1134. The propriety of such a test is supported by its close relation to the approach adopted by the Supreme Court in so-called “middle tier” equal protection cases. See Plyler v. Doe,-U.S. -,-& n. 16, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 2395 & n. 16, 72 L.Ed.2d 786 (1982) (education restrictions based on illegal alien status); Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U.S. 259, 275-76, 99 S.Ct. 518, 528, 58 L.Ed.2d 503 (1978) (classifications based on alienage); Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 197, 97 S.Ct. 451, 456, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976) (classifications based on sex). This case, however, does not turn on what precise intermediate standard of protection is applied to LL 48. To the extent LL 48 orders disclosure by the plaintiff groups to the City government, it would be upheld under the most stringent standard conceivable for such a financial disclosure statute; it easily satisfies the balancing approach suggested by Nixon, and applied in Plante and Duplantier. On the other hand, to the extent LL 48 provides for disclosure to the public of all information collected from the plaintiff groups, limited only by the statute’s “privacy” mechanism, it fails to satisfy any standard of review other than on an improperly “toothless” application of “mere rationality.” See Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 510, 96 S.Ct. 2755, 2764, 49 L.Ed.2d 651 (1976). A. Disclosure to the City Government LL 48 prescribes a two-step process. First, each individual covered by the law must file a disclosure form with the City Clerk. Second, the Clerk is to make the forms available to members of the public, subject only to the privacy mechanism. The evidence established that autonomy and confidentiality interests will be somewhat affected by the filing requirement, but that governmental interests in deterring and detecting conflicts of interest and venality will be furthered sufficiently to justify that requirement. Plaintiffs concede that in-house procedures in both the Fire and Police Departments already provide the City access to all the financial information required of them by LL 48. T. 525; T.D. 68. This is not a ease like American Federation of Government Employees v. Schlesinger, 443 F.Supp. 431 (D.D.C.1978), where even though disclosures would not be made public they trenched on substantial first amendment interests. Nor does it resemble Shuman v. City of Philadelphia, 470 F.Supp. 449 (E.D. Pa.1979), where mandatory in-house disclosure of a police officer’s relationship with a paramour was held to intrude upon the zone of privacy secure even from a government employer. Rather, as in Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 593, 97 S.Ct. at 873, and O’Brien v. DiGrazia, supra, 544 F.2d at 546, the filing requirement, accompanied by access limited to government investigators, would not substantially alter the status quo and therefore would not offend a substantial interest in confidentiality. Nor will the filing requirement, coupled with government access to the forms, have a significant impact on recognized autonomy interests. Plaintiffs presented evidence that LL 48 will prevent them from making certain choices about how to structure their family life. Specifically, they established that some employee plaintiffs choose to keep their financial affairs secret from their spouses, their children, or members of their extended family. T. 272-82. Similarly, some spouses choose to keep their financial affairs secret from the spouse who would have to file. T. 280-83. Plaintiffs failed to establish, however, that filing or government access to the forms will in any way affect employee choice to keep financial information from family members. Children, other family members, and even spouses need not have access to^ the forms prior to filing, since only the employee must verify and sign the form. Family members could acquire the information only as a result of the public disclosure provisions. Filing will necessarily compromise a spouse’s desire to keep secret his or her finances from the filing employee, and no provision is made in the law for separate filing by the spouse. Indeed, the employee, as the filer, must attest to the accuracy of the information relating to the spouse’s earnings, holdings, debts, and so forth. But this interest, though substantial in some families, is insufficient to invalidate the filing requirement, either in its entirety or only insofar as it applies to spouses. Although one spouse testified that the requirement would “strain” her marriage, no evidence suggested that it would significantly affect the decisions whether to marry, whether and when to procreate, or other family decisions heretofore held protected by the autonomy branch. Plaintiffs sought to prove at trial that the disclosure required by LL 48 would serve no useful purpose. Like LL 1 before it, LL 48 contains no declaration of policy. But, as the Appellate Division said in Hunter v. City of New York, supra, 58 A.D.2d at 137, 396 N.Y.S.2d at 187, “the object of this ordinance is clear: to discourage and detect corruption and the appearance of corruption, avoid conflicts of interest and instill in the public a sense of confidence in the integrity and impartiality of its public servants.” Plaintiffs sought to negate these as valid purposes by proving that no corruption has been shown to have occurred in living or recorded memory within the ranks of Fire Department plaintiffs and among Police Surgeons; furthermore, opportunities for corruption among these groups of plaintiffs are limited. Some government witnesses asserted that opportunities existed for Deputy and Battalion Chiefs to engage in corruption or to have conflicts of interests, see, e.g., T.D. 20-31, 45, particularly with respect to their supervision of inspections. Plaintiffs discredited much of this testimony, T.D. 50-56, 58, and presented credible testimony to the contrary, see T. 39-46, 54. Given Fire Inspector General Kotch’s agreement that “[tjhere is ... no proof whatsoever of a single instance of active corruption or conflict of interest activity by a Chief Officer,” T.D. 152, plaintiffs’ evidence is far more credible. Corruption in the ranks of Police Captains and Lieutenants has often been demonstrated, and opportunities for corruption exist among these groups. ' Plaintiffs proved, though, that corruption among such police officers is much less frequent than in the lower ranks; that procedures already in place in the Departments serve the deterrent and detection purposes of the law; and that internal procedures are more effective than employee disclosure, because they do not depend upon employee compliance and forms that may well be little used by investigators, see T. 589. Investigators charged with policing the integrity of employees in both the Fire and Police Departments credibly testified, however, that governmental access to the information secured by LL 48 would be of some help to them in discharging their duties, and would serve to deter conflicts of interest. T. 586, 632; T.D. 44, 99, 184-91. Corruption and more subtle conflicts of interest are possible in each group of plaintiff employees. That no corruption has been proved among several groups of plaintiffs does not establish that improprieties have never occurred, or would never be deterred or uncovered by the filings. Inspector General Kotch expressed the view that ample opportunities for corruption exist among Batallion and Deputy Chiefs. T.D. 20-29. John Guido, Chief of the Inspectional Services Bureau of the Police Department, described how the City’s Narcotics Division was long regarded as the best squad of detectives until the Knapp Investigation put some 60 of its 80 members behind bars. T. 576-77. The City is not required to rely, moreover, on departmental mechanisms to achieve its aims; it is entitled to opt for a centralized system of monitoring its employees’ finances, even if the new procedure is less comprehensive than some departmental procedures. The extent to which the new system will be used, or will prove useful, is speculative. Yet, the fact that dishonest filers may lie on the forms seems likely to prove a useful aspect of the system. Experience has shown that prosecuting individuals for false statements in required filings is often more efficient and successful than prosecuting them for the misconduct or imprioriety they sought to hide; and in prosecutions for the underlying conduct, proof that the subject lied or withheld information is often potent evidence, especially as to the individual’s intent. If the centralized disclosure procedure mandated by LL 48 serves valid governmental objectives, then requiring information about spousal finances is necessary to make it effective. As the First Circuit stated in O’Brien v. DiGrazia, 544 F.2d 543, 546 (1st Cir.1976), “[ijnformation about other members of the officer’s household must also be revealed if the questionnaire is to have meaning.” See T. 361, 376-79. Virtually every financial disclosure law enacted to date has required some disclosure of family finances. See supra, note 1. “[A]s a basic proposition, resources of a husband and wife are usually held in common, and the financial interests of a spouse are generally shared by the partner. A bookkeeping arrangement wherein one spouse holds sole title to a particular financial asset does not mean that the partner does not share an interest in the financial holding....” House Select Comm, on Ethics, Legislative Branch Disclosure Act of 1977, H.R.Rep. No. 574, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 23 (1977). “Failure to require disclosure of the financial holdings of a spouse . .. would render [LL 48] meaningless,” because a filer “who wished to evade the financial reporting requirements of the law could easily funnel money and property to his or her spouse. .. . ” Id. at 24 (citation omitted). These considerations justify the City Council’s inclusion of spousal finances in the filing requirements of LL 48, despite the desire of some spouses to keep their finances. secret from the filing employee. Moreover, the required disclosure of spousal information to the filing spouse serves yet another purpose that seems compelling. It effectively requires the filing spouse to make himself or herself familiar with the nonfiling spouse’s interests, and thereby become responsible for avoiding conduct that could improperly favor the nonfiling spouse’s interests. B. Disclosure to the Public [13] The aspect of LL 48 that permits public access to all financial information filed by employees must be evaluated separately from the law’s requirement that the forms be filed with the City. Public access to the information that must be filed under LL 48 would have a very substantial impact on the confidentiality aspect of privacy, as well as significant indirect effects upon recognized autonomy interests. Furthermore, the government has no need for such burdensome disclosure. Any legitimate need for public access — including press access — is served here by applying the statute to employees who are elected or hold policymaking positions. The plaintiff classes are, without exception, categories of civil servants appointed and promoted on the basis of competitive tests, who have no important policymaking authority. The public disclosure provision thus deprives plaintiffs of important rights while furthering no substantial interest. 1. Impact on privacy of public disclosure The degree of intrusion stemming from public exposure of the details of a person’s life is exponentially greater than disclosure to government officials. See Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, supra, 433 U.S. at 458, 97 S.Ct. at 2797; Whalen v. Roe, supra, 429 U.S. at 600-02, 97 S.Ct. at 877; Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 80-81, 96 S.Ct. 2831, 2846, 49 L.Ed.2d 788 (1976); O’Brien v. DiGrazia, supra, 544 F.2d at 546. Disclosure to the government necessarily results in fewer persons learning of the facts disclosed than does public disclosure, which potentially reaches everyone. Disclosure to the government serves identifiable needs that limit both the persons to whom disclosure is made and the purposes for which they may use the information disclosed. By contrast, even if public disclosure is seen to serve identifiable needs, those needs do not limit the persons to whom, or the purposes for which, disclosure is made. Any person may obtain and use publicly disclosed information, and for any purpose, however improper. Government officials generally lack familiarity with a particular employee’s privacy concerns, and are constrained in using private information by legal, ethical, and practical considerations, including the need to avoid harming employee morale. Public disclosure will provide access to individuals particularly interested in the filer’s privacy concerns, as well as to the press and other commercial interests bent on exploiting the information and relatively unconstrained in doing so. The mere fact that private information is available on demand to individuals who know what is sensitive and how to exploit it adds greatly to the inhibition, anxiety, and embarrassment that the same disclosure might cause if restricted to the government. T. 104-111, 243. Plaintiffs presented several examples of how public disclosure would adversely affect autonomy interests, particularly the recognized interest in controlling one’s family life. An individual (or his spouse) wanting to project an image of modest financial means could be exposed as having substantial wealth. Other filers would be unable to avoid exposing their relative impecunity. Exposure of “the truth” could prevent filers and their spouses from choosing life styles that they believe to be beneficial to themselves or to their children. T. 238-41. Given the broad scope of disclosure ordered by LL 48, moreover, public filings will reveal in some instances facts that could damage a variety of associations and relationships, ranging from family relationships to friendships and participation in fraternal and religious activities. See, e.g., T. 239-45, 272-82. Nor is it possible to know in advance the many effects of public disclosure upon the filer’s autonomy interests. For example, while the requirement that a filer reveal the address of certain real property he or she owns primarily affects a confidentiality interest, filers will have to avoid owning homes if they wish to avoid revealing their residence or summer addresses. Public disclosure will directly and materially affect the confidentiality interests of filers and their spouses. Among those likely to use the forms are insurance salesmen seeking customers, T. 423, family members or neighbors seeking knowledge of the filer’s financial capacity for a variety of purposes, T. 272-77, former spouses seeking to determine ability to pay alimony, T. 427, business organizations seeking investors or customers, public interest or other charitable organizations seeking contributions, and commercial interests seeking to expand mailing lists, T. 143. As noted above, public disclosure may lead to embarrassment that one lives above or below one’s means, and will reveal many associations. The impact will be felt with respect to the disclosure of virtually every class of financial information specified on LL 48 — sources of outside income, e.g., T. 295, 345, gifts and reimbursements, e.g, T. 325, amount and address of real property, eg, T. 551; T.D. 178-79, identity of creditors and amount of debt. Filers will also lose the power to minimize specific and reasonable fears for their own safety, their family’s safety, and the security of their property. T. 327-28, 532; T.D. 178-79. Police officers are particularly concerned that their home addresses must be revealed, if they own homes, thereby exposing themselves and their families to possible attack by criminals whom they investigate, apprehend, or testify against. T. 327-28, 434-35, 456, 532. A government investigator called by the defense to support the need for LL 48 confirmed that policemen commonly take extreme measures to keep their addresses private; he said that he, too, would be reluctant to make his address available to individuals whom he had helped send to prison. T.D. 178-79. The law also directs the City Clerk to retain the forms until two years after the employee leaves public service; public exposure is thereby potentially extended over decades, increasing the risk of intrusions and the resulting anxiety. T. 243. The press seems most likely to examine disclosures, and to use the information in newspapers, television, and radio stories. See T. 490 (experience in Alabama indicates press is a principal user of disclosed information). Uncontroverted testimony indicated that on several occasions the New York press used financial information about police and fire officers in humorous or ridiculing articles about the officers or their spouses, occasionally with painful consequences to the individuals concerned. T. 84, 139-40, 244, 305, 426, 428-31, 489, 528-29, 534; T.D. 203-04 (testimony of Inspector Kotch). Press exposure of private facts is perhaps the single most persistent danger to the privacy of Americans. The right to privacy has from its inception re