A study of leaks of classified information says that the friction caused by interests in keeping national security secrets and in the public’s right to know can be mitigated to some extent through improved understanding and management achieved partly through dialogue between the government and media.

WikiLeaks has changed the secrecy terrain, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News, with the government’s increased focus on leaks and use of new surveillance tools. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, February 8, 2012, by Steven Aftergood.

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As early as this fall, the U.S. government could have in place an interagency project using up-to-date technology to implement the Freedom of Information Act.

New technologies could increase proactive disclosure, speed responsiveness and cut backlogs. -db

From a commentary in OMB Watch, February 7, 2012.

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A federal district judge ruled that the government had to release a 500-page report about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the case against the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska for failing to list improper gifts in Senate ethics forms.

Stevens was convicted of the charges and lost his seat in the senate, but the conviction was vacated when it was discovered that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense. -db

From Politico, February 8, 2012, by Josh Gerstein.

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A California appeals court ruled that cities cannot withhold the name of a police officer involved in shootings unless they provide evidence of a specific threat against the officer.

The judge said it’s common practice to identify officers and there was a strong public interest in knowing who was involved in shootings. -db

From the San Francisco Chronicle, February 8, 2012, by John Wildermuth.

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The First Amendment Coalition and a Sacramento community group have filed suit against the Sacramento City Council for access to Council emails and other records concerning a  controversial redistricting plan for Council districts that was adopted last summer.

The suit, filed Friday by FAC and Eye on Sacramento, a local nonprofit, grows out of the Council’s refusal to disclose certain records requested by the organizations under the California Public Records Act. The withheld records include emails between Council members leading up to a contentious City Council meeting at which redistricting plans proposed by a citizens’ advisory committee–created by the Council–were rejected in favor of a voting map drawn up by members of the Council.

The plan adopted has been criticized for protecting the reelection prospects of incumbent Council members and for deviating significantly from the one-person, one-vote formula required under the federal Constitution. An editorial in the Sacramento Bee slammed the Council’s plan, and the secrecy surrounding  it,  “as a pathetically obvious political power play that looms as another black eye for this council.”

In withholding the records, the Council has claimed that they are subject to the “deliberative process privilege,” an exemption read into the Public Records Act in a 30-year-old state Supreme Court decision relating to records of the Governor. FAC believes, and will argue in this suit, that a privilege for government officials’ deliberations doesn’t apply to deliberative bodies–particularly deliberative bodies, like the Sacramento Council, that are also subject to California’s open-meeting law.

“City Councils, which are required by law to do all their decision-making in public meetings, can’t claim a secrecy ‘privilege’ for the same deliberations,” said Peter Scheer, FAC’s executive director. “In this case, the withheld emails may even show that Council members violated the Brown Act by discussing their districting map outside of a public meeting,” Scheer added.

FAC and Eye on Sacramento are represented in the case by Karl Olson, a partner at San Francisco law firm Ram, Olson, Cereghino & Kopczynski LLP .

Here’s a copy of the FAC lawsuit.

In a case pitting a forest products company against the California Department of Agriculture, the Sacramento Bee sought discovery material filed with the court.

A federal district judge ruled that once the materials became judicial records attached to a motion for summary judgment, the public and press should be granted access. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 2, 2012, by Haley Behre.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Obama administration to force them to release records related to the deaths by drone attacks of three U.S. citizens in Yemen.

The administration cited national security in denying the request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, but the ACLU said the drone program should not be allowed to operate without transparency and accountability. -db

From The Washington Post, February 1, 2012, by Karen DeYoung.

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In a narrowly tailored decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the public, media and same-sex marriage proponents could not gain access to the videotapes of the trial over Proposition 8.

The court said that the trial judge had assured Prop 8 backers that the trial videotape would not be made public, and that pledge had to be respected to maintain the integrity of the justice system. -db

From the San Jose Mercury News, February 2, 2012, by Howard Mintz.

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The Hanford City Council has so far not released an anonymous packet of documents to the public and may never. The documents make allegations against city leaders which the council discussed in closed meetings.

Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publisher Association, said the council may be on safe ground in denying public access to the documents but should consider if someone who intends to sue had supplied the documents. In that case disclosure is required under the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db

From the Hanford Sentinel, February 1, 2012, by Eiji Yamashita.

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The Reporters Committee  for Freedom of the Press did not like a federal appeals decision upholding a law restricting access to Virginia state records by non-residents. The court ruled that the restriction was not unconstitutional.

The Reporters Committee felt the court should have considered the effect of the restriction on smaller journalistic enterprises. -db

From a commentary by The Reporters Committee  for Freedom of the Press, February 1, 2012.

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that non-residents have no right to Virginia public records under the state’s freedom of information law. Non-residents were challenging the law claiming it was unconstitutional.

The two non-residents who sued the state were seeking child support documents and real estate tax assessment records. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 1, 2012, by You-Jin Han.

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A federal district judge ruled that the FBI could not use a Freedom of Information Act exclusion in denying access to records about a civil rights era photographer who was an informant for the agency.

The judge said the FBI confirmed the relationship with their response to the FOIA request so could not then withhold the records. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 1, 2012, by Rachel Bunn.

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The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has sued the Justice Department and the FBI claiming that they refuse to release information on the FBI’s surveillance of citizens who have shown support for or interest in WikiLeaks.

EPIC made the Freedom of Information Act complaint in federal court. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, January 31, 2012, by Iulia Filip.

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Two years after President Barack Obama ordered government agencies to come up to speed on declassifying 400 million pages of old records, there has been little progress.

The failure to make more progress is a sign that the secrecy system considers itself immune from presidential orders, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, January 30, 2012 by Steven Aftergood.

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Long Beach and a police officers group are asking an appeals court  to overturn a lower court ruling that the city must provide the names of officers involved in shootings. After a controversial shooting of an unarmed man in Long Beach in 2010, the Los Angeles Times asked the city to provide the identities of officers involved in shootings.

The city contended that the records of shootings were part of personnel files and not for public viewing. The police officers union said the police needed to prevent retaliation against officers who used lethal force in conduct of their duties. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2012, by Victoria Kim.

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The Justice Department wants a federal judge to allow them to withhold photos of the death of Osama bin Laden on the grounds that releasing the photos could incite violence against the U.S.

The DOJ disputed the arguments of Judicial Watch that making the photos public would cause harm to national security by revealing intelligence methods or equipment. -db

From The Blog of Legal Times, January 26, 2012, by Mike Scarcella.

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Safety Research and Strategies is suing the federal government for details of their investigation into the sudden acceleration of a Prius last year.

Federal regulators have found no evidence that electronic systems were the cause of the unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, but Safety Research is not satisfied with that conclusion. -db

From The New York Times, January 24, 2012, by Bill Vlasic.

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A Santa Monica math teacher lost a lawsuit in a California appeals court to keep a sexual harassment complaint against him private.

The court found substantial public interest in the release of details of the investigation into a parent’s charge that the teacher sexually harassed his thirteen-year-old daughter. The charge was not fully substantiated. -db

From the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, January 25, 2012, by Kenneth Ofgang.

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After tipsters told the Action Alameda News that the Alameda Police Department was trying to cover up a robbery at a restaurant in December of 2011, the newspaper made a public records request on the incident.

The police denied that there was a coverup and denied access to 911 tapes saying that they were exempt under the California Public Records Act. -db

From a commentary in Action Alameda News, January 19, 2012.

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A U.S. district judge will hear arguments on a challenge by the Sacramento Bee to the sealing of arguments in a legal dispute between the federal government and Sierra Pacific Industries over how a 2007 wildfire began and who should pay for the destruction.

Sierra Pacific disputes the contention that the fire was sparked by a bulldozer owned by  one of their contractors. -db

From the Sacramento Bee, January 19, 2012, by Denny Walsh.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will get another chance to protect the identity of informants in the investigation of a real estate kickback scheme in Hawaii.

HUD had lost a round in an Hawaiian court when a three-judge panel said the agency failed to explain why it redacted the names of informants in documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, January 18, 2012, by Tim Hull.

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An agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lost a ruling in federal appeals court when the court ruled that  a video that went viral of his accidentally shooting himself during a public lecture did not violate the  Privacy Act.

The agent claimed that the video was part of an investigation into the shooting and was private. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 18, 2012, by Rachel Bunn.

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C. found that the Justice Department could not withhold files from the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics of their criminal investigation of U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska.

The Justice Department did not file any charges against Young and withheld the files on privacy grounds. -db

From the Anchorage Daily News, January 11, 2012, by Richard Maurer.

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A new House bill to block public access to publicly-funded research is nothing new. Efforts have been underway since 2008 to roll back the law that requires public access.

The book publishing industry backs the bill claiming that the current policy of posting public funded findings online undercuts their business.

From The Scientist, January 9, 2012, by Bob Grant.

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The Obama administration is no longer fighting a battle to avoid disclosing legal memos over plans to force local law enforcement to participate in Secure Communities, an immigration enforcement program.

The administration also admitted that it gave a federal  judge false information last year in one of the hearings on the case. -db

From a commentary for Politico, January 9, 2012, by Josh Gerstein.

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California Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco intends to introduce a number of bills in 2012 to give the public greater access to the workings of their government.

The bills include SB 1000 keeping the California Public Utilities Commission from withholding information about their regulation of PG&E responsible for a recent catastropic fire and SB 1001 that would improve the state’s campaign finance and lobbying database. The database has crashed several times in the past and needs updating. -db

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 3, 2012, by Steven T. Jones.

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The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that  court documents in case brought by Apple against a maker of Mac computer clones were public.

Apple claimed that the documents contained “compelling trade secrets”  about the Mac OS X operating system. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 6, 2012, by Kristen Rasmussen.

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The Anaheim City Attorney is investigating an e-mail sent by a planning department official ordering employees to purge unnecessary records at the risk of disciplinary action.

The order came after the Voice of OC filed a California Public Records Act request for communications to and from city council members. -db

From the Voice of OC, January 4, 2012, by Adam Elmahrek.

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A federal district judge ordered the release of court records relating to a lawsuit brought by a hospital system alleging that another hospital group had conspired against them.

The hospital system refused to release details of an agreement settling the case claiming that the information was confidential, containing vital business information about future plans. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 4, 2012, by Kristen Rasmussen.

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There were four cases over the Freedom of Information Act that promoted transparency in 2011 according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

The cases were Milner v. Department of Navy, FCC v. AT&T, Islamic Shura Council of S. Cal. v. FBI and National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. ICE.

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, December 31, 2011, by Jennifer Lynch and Mark Rumold.

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The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled that the CIA had the right to refuse to confirm or deny existence of records named in a Freedom of Information Act request. The refusal is called a Glomar response.

The CIA had refused to provide information to a US. citizen seeking information on his grandfather, an Iceland citizen who allegedly was associated with the Icelandic Communist Party. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, December 22, 2011, by You-Jin Han.

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A recent study found that under the Obama administration, in 2010 federal agencies used exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 33 percent more than they did under George W. Bush in 2008.

Watchdog groups are now trying to hold Obama to his pledge to make his administration the most transparent and accountable in history. -db

From Federal Times, December 15, 2011, by Sean Reilly.

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The Central Intelligence Agency says it will now consider a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on Open Source Works, a new CIA open source intelligence division.

An historian had asked for the charter of Open Source Works with the reply that the CIA could not confirm or deny the existence of the charter. -db

From Secrecy News, December 14, 2011, by Steven Aftergood.

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A federal judge said the Environmental Protection Agency did not have to release studies about lingering oil in the Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska, the site of the devastating Exxon Valdez spill over 21 years ago.

Exxon Valdez had requested the information through the Freedom of Information Act. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, December 9, 2011, by Ryan Abbottt.

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Medicare is making its database of claims available to the public to allow assessment of doctors. A court ruling has blocked access to this information for decades.

Critics of the release warn that the data could be easily misinterpreted in assessing doctors. -db

From KSPR (ABC), December 5, 201, by Joanna Small.

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In a case brought by the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Sun and the Sacramento Bee, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ordered the California Assembly to release budget records under the California Public Records Act.

Lawyers for the Assembly did not participate in oral arguments before the judge last week. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2011, by Joe Piasecki.

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A California appeals court ruled that a man who wanted to find out if he were registered in the Domestic Violence Restraining Order System could not have access under the Information Practices Act of 1977.

A judge had earlier ruled that the registry was exempt under the California Public Records Act. -db

From the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, December 5, 2011, by a MetNews Staff Writer.

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WikiLeaks released  the first documents of a massive cache of documents from contractors involved in surveillance. To make the release, WikiLeaks worked with two other nonprofits and with the media including the Washington Post.

WikiLeaks said surveillance companies were invading personal computers and cell phones. -db

From Mashable, December 1, 2011, by Stan Schroeder.

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The Courthouse News Service lost a round in court when a federal judge refused to hear a case over a court clerk’s delay in providing access to new civil actions. Courthouse News contended that the delays violated their free press rights in that by the time they received access, the cases were old news.

The judge said it was not the role of a federal judge to intervene in a state court’s business. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, November 29, 2011, by Bill Girdner.

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A Gawker reporter is suing the National Archives and Records Administration for information about how former President George W. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney tried to shape public opinion during their tenure.

The reporter is not seeking the Bush administration documents protected under law from disclosure but rather the identities of those who sought records. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, December 1, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld.

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