As this decision makes clear, Vermont FOI law provides no right of access to law enforcement investigative records — even after the case is closed! That’s a wee problem, folks… The Vermont Supreme Court on Friday granted a partial victory to the Rutland Herald in the newspaper’s effort to get access to records concerning allegations [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: exemptions, Law Enforcement, Vermont | Leave a Comment »
The Maine House of Representatives decisively rejected an attempt to create a dangerous exemption to Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, which guarantees access to public records. From the ACLU: LD 1805, “An Act to Implement Recommendations of the Right to Know Advisory Committee Concerning a Public Records Exception for Proposed Legislation, Reports and Working Papers [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: governors, Maine, proposed exemptions | Leave a Comment »
An interesting nugget, courtesy of FOI: The state medical school disciplined 20 doctors and fined 11 of them up to $4,000 for handing out sick notes to demonstrators at last year’s labor protests, newly released records show. The records, requested by the Journal Sentinel last year under the state’s open records law, show for the [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, FOI At Work | Tagged: doctors, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
This kind of stuff makes my head literally ache: a story that allows a proponent of secrecy to make age-old arguments against open searches completely, utterly unchallenged by, well, fact… Florida’s open records laws will impact the quality of applicants seeking the Duval County Public Schools superintendent position, according to the president of a national [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 8. Officials' perspectives, Open meetings laws | Tagged: Florida, school districts, secret searches, superintendents | Leave a Comment »
From our neighbors to the north comes a fresh academic freedom/FOI dispute: A prominent University of Ottawa law professor has launched a grievance against a school administrator after she agreed to release documents related to his research under the province’s freedom of information law. Professor Amir Attaran is outraged that the university would so readily [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, international FOI | Tagged: academic freedom, Canada, Colleges and Universities, Supreme Court of Canada, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law | Leave a Comment »
It’s a fundamental flaw in the fabric of FOI: requesters stonewalled by government agencies square off with taxpayer-funded lawyers with all the time in the world on their hands… Signaling their intention to go to court forever to withhold information from the public, lawyers for 15 city officials begin today trying to convince the 5th [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, Open meetings laws | Tagged: constitutional challenges, open meetings law, Texas, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals | Leave a Comment »
In a classic example of cloak-and-dagger lawmaking, a Tennessee legislative committee tacked a secrecy provision onto a completely unrelated piece of legislation with no advance notice to anyone… Tennessee lawmakers want to close the door on teacher performance to parents and the media, keeping all aspects of educators’ new evaluations confidential. A new measure is [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law | Tagged: Education reform, proposed exemptions, teacher evaluation records, Tennessee | 2 Comments »
No reason why every journalism program in the country can’t do this: On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 29, the Spartan Online News Network, powered by Michigan State University journalism students, emailed most of the municipalities and school districts in Ingham County with a simple request. The students asked how many Freedom of Information Act requests these [...]
Filed under: 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 4. Finding records, FOI At Work | Tagged: foi audits, Michigan State | Leave a Comment »
The Obama administration couldn’t keep pace with the increasing number of people asking for copies ofgovernment documents, emails, photographs and more under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of the latest federal data by The Associated Press. Federal agencies did better last year trying to fulfill requests, but still fell [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 8. Officials' perspectives | Tagged: Associated Press, backlog, federal FOIA | Leave a Comment »
A riveting account of suing the government over FOIA, from a pro se litigant’s perspective: Inside well-funded newsrooms, investigative reporters can usually turn to company lawyers for help with stalled public records requests. But independent freelancers don’t have that luxury, and many can’t afford to hire legal counsel on their own. So when the time [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: federal FOIA, litigation, pro se litigant | 1 Comment »
