In case you missed it, The New York Times had a really interesting piece on FOIA the other day. The money graf: On Jan. 4, The New York Times received a final response from the Defense Department to a FOIA request made on June 1, 1997. The department sent it by Federal Express, Priority Overnight. [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: Freedom of Information Act, June 1 1997, New York Times | Leave a Comment »
An Essex County judge today ordered Newark to turn over an itemized list of e-mails surrounding Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million donation to the city’s schools. The order by Superior Court Judge Rachel Davidson is the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle between the city and the ACLU of New Jersey, which is [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: e-mails, Facebook, New Jersey | Leave a Comment »
Thirteen people, 12 of them Lime Rock Fire District residents, have filed suit against the Lime Rock, Rhode Island, Fire District, Chief Frank Sylvester, and record keeper Lesley Heaton, alleging “hundreds” of knowing and willful violations of the Access to Public Records Act. Among the documents requested were Sylvester’s employment contracts, his e-mails, proof that [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: fire departments, Rhode Island | Leave a Comment »
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of St. Louis, asking a judge to make the city turn over jail records related to inmate grievances. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the suit file Wednesday accuses the city’s corrections division of ignoring repeated requests over the past four months for records under the Missouri Sunshine [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: inmate grievances, jail, Missouri, St. Louis | Leave a Comment »
The Justice Department has a new legal argument for why the government should be allowed to conceal the postmortem photographs of Osama bin Laden: It’s doing the same thing with the CIA’s classified drone program. On Wednesday, the department filed court papers [PDF] asking a federal judge to rule against the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, which [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: CIA, Judicial Watch, Osama bin Laden, United States Department of Justice | Leave a Comment »
The Society of Professional Journalists is seeking nominations for its Black Hole Award. The Black Hole serves as the counterpoint to the Sunshine Award, highlighting particularly heinous violations of the public’s right to know. By exposing the bad actors, we hope to educate members of the public to their rights and call attention to those [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: Black Hole, Society of Professional Journalists, Sunshine Week | Leave a Comment »
Kudos to Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal Sentinel investigative reporter Gina Barton, whose excellent October 2011 three-part series “Both Sides of the Law” found that at least 93 Milwaukee police officers had been disciplined for violating laws and ordinances, but didn’t lose their jobs. Barton said it took nearly two years of records requests, a court case, and $7,500 in [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: Law Enforcement, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, police | Leave a Comment »
Connecticut’s highest court will soon consider whether the University of Connecticut must release its season ticket holders’ names and some other lists under open records laws. The state Supreme Court has scheduled an Oct. 21 hearing on the case, which stems from a Freedom of Information Commission decision in 2009. That agency ordered UConn to [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: Connecticut, Sports, universities | 1 Comment »
Passing along from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government…. The government cannot shield public information by putting it in the hands of private contractors. That’s the central argument made by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government in a legal brief filed Sept. 26 with the state Court of Appeals. “The district court’s government [...]
Filed under: 3. Access law, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: New Mexico, private contractors | Leave a Comment »
