San Diego Media Appeal FOI Case

Three news organizations, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, have appealed a judge's decision barring Vista officials from making public the identities of employers registered under the city's day-laborer law.
The litigation was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the city in July to block the release of the names of the employers to an anti-illegal-immigration group based in North County. In June, the group filed a request for the list under the state's public-records law.

Vista began requiring in July 2006 that anyone hiring day laborers off the street register with the city. The list of employers had been released to the Vista Citizens Brigade, an offshoot of the Minuteman Project, and others until the ACLU sued.

Last month, Superior Court Judge Michael Orfield ordered the city not to release the list. He ruled that the employers' right to privacy trumped the public's right to know their identities under the California Public Records Act.

More here.