La. public records law exempts governor

Documents stemming from Gov. Bobby Jindal's office and documents he reviews from other offices are exempted from the Louisiana open-government law, the News Star reported. Despite Jindal's public support for transparency, the state's open records law related to the governor's office was ranked the "darkest" sunshine law in the nation by the Citizen Access Project.

While Gov. Bobby Jindal campaigned on and regularly promotes transparency in government at all levels, the same standards do not apply to his office.

Getting what one would think should be public records from the governor's office is virtually impossible under state law — a law that earns Louisiana a national survey's ranking of worst in the nation for access to the governor's records.

State law exempts the governor from having to release documents that are commonly accessible in other government offices. And through wording added by the Legislature last year, the protection could extend to any other office's document that the governor reviews.

More here.