He notched a victory in a Supreme Court decision against the City of Chicago in 1976. He then spent over 40 years making sure the ruling was enforced.

While the German government frets over the sudden chill in relations with the United States, residents around American bases hope that ties are too tight to cut easily.

© Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

His site, Cryptome, was a precursor to WikiLeaks, and in some ways bolder in its no-holds-barred approach to exposing government secrets.

© Seth Wenig/Associated Press