U.S. press freedom plummeted in 2011

Press freedom took a hit in the United States in 2011 according to Reporters Without Borders who ranked contries according to their performance. The U.S. now shares 47th place in a tie with Romania and Argentina. Much of the drop may be based on the harassment, beating and arrest of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street [...]

Federal judge rules for public interest group seeking files of criminal investigation of House member

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 [...]

Call it the Not-so-public Utilities Commission

If you’re worried about natural gas pipelines running near your home or business, prepare for a long battle to get key information from California’s Public Utilities Commission. Under a 60-year-old law, vast numbers of documents — including regulatory reports and safety studies — are secret, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. What’s more, PG&E often has [...]

California: Former Manhattan Beach city manager sues for invasion of privacy

A former Manhattan Beach city manager is suing the city for disclosing records that he claims were supposed to be secret as part of a severance package. The city attorney said the city was acting in the public interest in its commitment to transparency. The former city manager felt that allegations of sexual harassment made [...]

Opinion: Los Angeles schools errs in keeping teacher ratings from public

The Los Angeles Unified School District is thwarting the public’s right to know how teachers rated in value-added evaluations saying that the disclosures would be “embarrassing and painful” to teachers. Parents have the right to know how students are faring under their teachers argues Jim Newton in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. -db [...]

Washington state: Supreme Court rules anti-gay petitioners can’t hide identities

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed disclosure of signatures for a Washington referendum to overturn a law granting domestic partners the same rights as married couples. The opponents of gay marriage had argued that they would be subject to threats, harassment and reprisals if the signatures were released to the public. -db From the Courthouse [...]

Penn State sex abuse scandal may bring changes to open records laws

Because in 2007 Penn State was granted immunity to Pennsylvania’s public records law, the university can keep information out of public reach, but that could change as state legislators question the status quo. Currently the university is under no legal mandate to release records of any transactions concerning the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse except to [...]

Freedom of information: Muslim group blocked from seeing FBI investigative guidelines

A federal district judge ruled that the Justice Department does not have to provide a Muslim civil rights group with FBI investigative guidelines. The judge held that revealing the guidelines would compromise the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations and prosecutions. -db From  The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 15, 2011, by J.C. [...]

Candidate Cain: Public loses when confidentiality agreements settle grievances

The public may never know the truth about alleged sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain because Cain’s former employer, the National Restaurant Association, signed confidential settlement agreements sealing the lips of all involved. These confidential agreements, argues Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute, often do great harm by shielding dangerous people and [...]

Prop. 8 donors not entitled to anonymity, judge says

Donors to Prop. 8, California’s anti same-sex-marriage initiative, have no right to remain anonymous, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled. Backers of Prop. 8 had argued that campaign contributors could be subject to harassment and threats unless they were allowed dispensation from disclosure laws. But U.S. District Judge Morrison England disagreed, arguing that Prop. 8 [...]

France limits citizen posting of police misconduct

France is shutting down citizen access to a website that allows posting of videos of police misconduct. It is the latest effort to limit online speech. The latest attack on transparency came two years after an Amnesty International report that the country does a poor job of investigating police killings, beatings and racial abuse. -db [...]

Justice Department withdraws rule change on FOIA requests

Reacting to pressure from legislators and open government advocates, the Department of Justice withdrew a proposal to allow government agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests with false denials. The proposal would have allowed them to deny that records exist when they actually did. -db From a press release from the American Civil [...]

Commission unveils war fraud, seals records for 20 years

After uncovering $60 billion in contractor waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Commission on Wartime Contracting buried its internal records for 20 years. The Commission did release 8 reports and publish recommendations to avoid waste and fraud, but the decision to block access to the internal records and source material prevents the public [...]

Immigrant group gains access to ICE memo on deportation policy

A federal judge ruled that an  immigrant rights group could obtain an internal memo from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) concerning the legal justification for the Secure Communities deportation program. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the group sued five federal agencies for the memo. -d From the Courthouse News Service, October 26, [...]

Same-sex trial videos remain sealed – for now

Video recordings of last year’s same-sex marriage trial in California will remain under seal pending further review, a federal appeals court has decided. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said it must determine whether release of the videos would serve the public interest without compromising the safety of witnesses for Prop. [...]

Federal judge approves suit against State Department on FOIA requests

A federal judge ruled that an author could proceed with his lawsuit against the State Department and other government agencies who allegedly ignored a requirement to provide Freedom of Information Act requesters estimates of the time it would take to fulfill requests. The author was after information about the Iraq oil industry. -db From Politico, [...]

Critics balance praise with skepticism on new Obama promise for greater transparency

The Obama administration has reduced the backlog of  Freedom of Information Act requests but still faces a large number of unfulfilled requests. Under a new plan, the administration wants to improve the processing of the requests and also address other crucial issues in government openness including strengthening whistleblower protections and making more information available. Writing [...]

Obama administration pledges faster pace on approving FOIA requests

The Obama administration said it would use advances in technology to expedite Freedom of Information Act requests. The new pledge is part of an international effort to provide citizens greater power to participate in government. -db From Broadcasting & Cable, September 20, 2011, by John Eggerton. Full story

Cal State University trustees back hiring secrecy

When it comes to picking finalists for top jobs on state university campuses, Cal State University trustees have decided it’s a private matter. On Wednesday trustees of the 23-campus system voted 15-1 to eliminate a long-standing requirement that finalists for campus president openly visit the school to meet with students and campus leaders. The visits [...]

Obama admnistration cites transparency gains in report

The Obama administration released a report about their progress in increasing transparency. They cited increased grants of Freedom of Information Act requests; the declassification of sensitive data; and the use of technology to improve access to government spending and information on government agencies. The report was well-received by open government advocates, but they noted that [...]

Free press advocate asks Supreme Court for ‘presumption of openness’ for court records

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has asked the Supreme Court to make every document in their court open to the public unless it designates otherwise. A New York Times editorial backs the suggestion noting that in the last 18 years the court has increased the practice of sealing records, a troubling trend. [...]

Challenge mounted to removal of public database of doctor discipline and malpractice

Newspaper associations and public interest groups are protesting a move by the Obama administration to withhold a data bank created by Congress in 1986 to assist hospitals and state licensing boards to check doctor’s records for discipline and malpractice. The records had been useful in creating laws to protect the public as reported by Blythe [...]

California Supreme Court to hear case challenging restrictions on releasing computer data

Why is okay to withhold information transferred to electronic format when the same information in document form is available under the California Public Records Act( (CPRA)? That is the question the California Supreme Court will consider in reviewing a Court of Appeal decision that Orange County could charge the Sierra Club $300,000 for the Orange [...]

Federal appeals decision busts privacy exemption for Freedom of Information Act requests

The Internet era has eroded a Supreme Court decision (Department of Justice v. Reporters’ Committee) allowing governments to deny rap sheets requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Now it is possible to tap into a national database provided by the federal courts to obtain the information. In an opinion a federal judge has even [...]

National Archives sitting on 9/11 Commission records

Although the 9/11 Commission ordered that their investigative records of al Qaeda’s attack on the United States should be opened to the public in 2009, the National Archives has not yet released the vast majority of the information. John Berger, an author who maintains a website with 9/11-related documents, said to withhold the information is [...]

Justice Department ordered to release case information related to alleged illegal search

A federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice must release case docket information in criminal cases where the government used cellphone location tracking data without a warrant.The American Civil Liberties Union used the Freedom of Information Act starting in 2007 in a bid for the information. The ACLU was concerned that the [...]

Editorial: Feds drag heels on releasing records going back as far as World War II

While the Obama administration is making some progress in breaking the backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests, the National Security Archive says that there are still requests that go back over a decade and even to World War II. There are reasons for the slow pace but none that make much sense or could [...]

Iowa newspaper sues Agriculture department for food stamp records

After receiving little information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to its Freedom of Information Act request for information on the national food stamp program, the Argus Leader filed a lawsuit to obtain the records. The newspaper wants the records in its investigation of businesses profiting from the food stamp program and possible fraud. -db [...]

California: Legislator proposes repeal of law protecting lawmakers from disclosure

Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino wants to repeal the Legislative Open Records Act that gives lawmakers legal exemptions from disclosing certain records. The proposed bill would make the legislature subject to the broader California Public Records Act. “Assembly leaders have hidden documents and expenditures from the public long enough. It is hypocritical of the Legislature to [...]

ACLU sues for records of FBI’s domestic spying

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the FBI and the National Security Agency for withholding information about the eGuardian monitoring system that collects information on “suspicious activity” that may include taking photos of important buildings. The ACLU has been unsuccessful in its attempts to acquire the information through the Freedom of Information Act. The [...]

Texas Gov. Perry’s penchant for privacy

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign for president has faulted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for purported failure to open the workings of the Fed to public view, has “adopted policies that shroud his own office in a purposeful opaqueness that confounds prying reporters – or any member of the public questioning his policies,” the [...]

Federal court says White House visitor logs are public information

A federal district court in Washington, D.C. ruled that White House visitor logs are a part of the public record and subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The Secret Service had argued that the logs were not agency records under the FOIA but White House records so under the Presidential Records Act. It also [...]

Federal appeals court limits prisoner access to public records

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Wisconsin prison rule keeping prisoners from receiving documents under the state’s public records act that do not refer to the prisoner. The prisoner had circumvented the public records act by asking his grandmother to obtain the documents. -db From the First Amendment Center, August 12, 2011, by Douglas [...]

Plan for cameras in court stalls

Amid complaints from trial judges, a proposal to ease rules limiting use of cameras in California courts has stalled. The proposal by the state Judicial Council’s Bench-Bar-Media Committee would have allowed cameras in court unless a judge specifically ruled otherwise and would have provided for appeals to a higher court. But after the idea ran [...]

Associated Press wins First Amendment Award

For its ambitious use of freedom of information laws to generate high impact news stories, the Associated Press has won the 2011 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award. In a press release, the AP said it filed more than 1,000 public records requests in 2010 and 60 legal appeals of rejections. In 2009, the AP [...]

Court rules no contempt in CIA destruction of video of interrogations

A federal judge criticized the CIA for ignoring a court order asking the agency to preserve videos of interrogations but did not hold it in contempt. The American Civil Liberties Union had brought the contempt motion in ACLU v. Department of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit begun in 2004. An ACLU spokesperson said, [...]

Editorial: Judge in Casey Anthony trial threatens public access to court records

An editorial in the Orlando Sentinel criticizes Belvin Perry, the judge in the Casey Anthony trial for withholding names of the jurors until October, saying the order “mocks the state’s constitutional guarantee of open government.” The editorial says Perry took on responsibilities not his own and argued that transparency worked in the public interest, “Perry [...]

Florida judge in Casey Anthony trial orders names of jurors be kept secret until late October

The judge who presided over the trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida woman acquitted of murdering her two-tear-old daughter, blasted the media while ordering that the names of jurors be kept from the media until Oct. 25. Writing for Reuters, Barbara Liston paraphrased the judge, Belvin Perry, “Perry lamented what he said was the blurring [...]

Open government: Senators propose bill on secret expansion of Patriot Act powers

A bill proposed by Senators Roy Wyden and Mark Udall would require the U.S. intelligence chief to admit to interpreting the Patriot Act to give the government massive domestic surveillance powers not granted by Congress. In a letter last week to Wyden and Udall, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted to the secret legal [...]

Illinois: Feds back university in records dispute

The Justice Department and higher education organizations filed briefs in federal court backing the University of Illinois in its refusal to release student records. The Chicago Tribune is seeking the records of students as part of a series of stories about alleged favoritism shown to some applicants to the university. The Justice Department noted that [...]

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