N.J. guidelines clarify what court documents are public

In September, a new rule adopted by New Jersey's highest court will define evidence admitted in courts as "open for public inspection," the Star-Ledger reported. Private records will include financial information in divorce proceedings and personal identifiers such as credit card and Social Security numbers. Thomas Cafferty, a lawyer for the New Jersey Press Association said, "It was less than clear before what would be accessible to the public. I think the Albin report makes it clear."

For decades, some residents could not get court documents they were entitled to see because the judiciary had limited guidelines on which records were available for public viewing.

That's expected to change next month when a new rule recently adopted by the state's highest court goes into effect.

Evidence admitted in New Jersey courts are just some of the records specifically defined as "open for public inspection" in the state's new guidelines.

More here.

NFOIC Summit: Wisconsin FOIA roundup

State-by-state updates at the 2009 NFOIC Summit: Christa Westerberg of Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council provided a summary of her state's FOI news.

• Wisconsin has seen good legal developments because of court cases that clarifies what constitutes good notice and when quasi-government organizations are subject to open meetings and records laws.
• The state has no consistent retention policy on any records. The attorney general says agencies must have a policy, but it doesn't matter what's in it.
• Legislators are working on a shield law for reporters' notebooks and sources.
• We're trying to model Minnesota's policy for police records.
• The state could use a better fees policy. Fees are now issued at the discretion of the custodian so there's a lot of arbitrariness.
• The state legislature is allowed to hammer out the budget in some private committees. Two provisions in the proposed budget include: the expungement of certain felon records and the elimination of designating official state newspapers so that required government notices could just go online without being published in print publications.
  

Open meeting laws may be unconstitutional

Elected officials have First Amendment rights to speak to each other in private. A federal appellate court decides that the Texas Open Meetings law must pass the strict scrutiny standard to be held constitutional, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported. “The Supreme Court’s decisions demonstrate that the First Amendment’s protection of elected officials’ speech is robust and no less strenuous than that afforded to the speech of citizens in general,” Judge James Dennis wrote for the three-judge panel. Few laws are upheld as constitutional under this test which requires that the law is narrowly tailored to advance a substantial government interest. The determination must first be made by the federal trial court, RCFP reported.

In an opinion that could call into question the constitutionality of open meetings laws everywhere, a federal appellate court held Monday that the Texas Open Meetings law must pass a heightened constitutional test under the First Amendment.

In a relatively brief opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans (5th Cir.) held that elected officials have First Amendment rights to speak to each other in private. As a result, open meetings laws that prohibit private speech between elected officials have to pass stringent constitutional muster, the court said.

The case centers on two city council members who were prosecuted for violating the law by privately e-mailing each other. Their alleged crime was “acting as a quorum in exchanging private emails discussing whether to call a council meeting to consider a public contract matter,” according to the court.

More here.

PDF of court opinion here.

Wyo. judge rules child endangerment cases can't be closed

Wyoming courts will no longer be able to automatically close child endangerment case files, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported. This ruling will not apply to information that could identify the victim but will "give the public more information about criminal charges in such cases."

A Wyoming court's policy of banning public access to child endangerment cases files violates the state public records law, a judge ruled Thursday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

District Judge Scott Skavdahl's ruling came in response to a December lawsuit filed by the Casper newspaper against Circuit Judge Michael Huber, after the newspaper reports it sought "the release of records in child endangerment cases that don't involve sex crimes." In Wyoming, the district court is higher than the circuit level.

According to the Star-Tribune, Skavdahl said "it was beyond his discretion to tell the circuit court exactly what policy it should have in regard to such records." But the newspaper's attorney, Bruce Moats, said the ruling will still give the public more information about criminal charges in such cases.

More here.

A HUGE Victory in Texas...

A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that state employees' birth dates are public and must be released, a decision hailed by open-government advocates.

The state comptroller's office sought to withhold date-of-birth information from The Dallas Morning News, citing concerns about possible identity theft. But the 3rd District Court of Appeals in Austin upheld a lower court ruling rejecting that argument and said the comptroller hadn't proved its claim.

"The speculative and unproven threat of identity theft is insufficient to exempt date-of-birth information from disclosure," the court said.

The comptroller's office said it was disappointed by the ruling and was considering an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. "No private sector employer is required to release to the public its employees' date-of-birth information," spokesman R.J. DeSilva said, "and we believe government employees should have the same protection."

David Starr, vice president and deputy general counsel of Belo Corp., The News' parent company, said the outcome is an important open-records victory. "This ruling will help The News keep an eye on how state government spends taxpayer dollars and how public employees do their jobs," he said.

More here, including pithy quotes from yours truly.