AUSTIN (CN) – The checkerboard of public access in Texas courts was the focus of a conference on freedom of information earlier this week that included a bureau chief, a local clerk, a legislator and a state high court clerk.
In the face of political headwinds from elected court clerks, who see a goldmine in the records, the Texas Supreme Court clerk is now moving to unify public access throughout the Texas courts. A key part of the campaign is the engagement by the high court’s Office of Court Administration of a Plano-based tech company to develop a statewide online database called “re:SearchTX.”
Earlier this year, a core of clerks joined by a few Texas legislators tried to push a bill through the Texas Legislature that would have preserved the current balkanized system. But the bill died in the state Senate after opposition from the high court, the press and others.
The Freedom of Information Foundation Texas analyzed the underlying conflicts in a conference called’ “Transparency = Real News” held Thursday in Austin.
Texas Supreme Court Clerk Blake Hawthorne said he believed that state court clerks, lawmakers and the court have the same goal but there remain “some differences in how to get there.”
He said the court’s information technology committee has discussed keeping certain cases – like divorce or adoption cases – offline, which should address some privacy concerns.
“I think it’s important for people’s confidence in the court system that they are able to see our work, they’re able to see what both sides argue,” Hawthorne said.
In question and answer period, attorney Paul Watler of Jackson Walker addressed Texas clerks who, in the transition to a new technology, have cloaked their documents in obscurity and delay.
“There are federal court rulings from both Texas and California that recognize a First Amendment right of access in the public and the press to complaints to petitions filed that attaches immediately at the time that it’s accepted not after it’s been processed,” Watler said.
Watler represented Courthouse News in a 2009 challenge to Houston clerk Loren Jackson who, fresh off an election win, kicked the press out from behind the counter and made reporters wait up to three days while his staff processed new cases. The Democratic candidate had campaigned on the slogan, “Get online not in line.”
U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in the Southern District of Texas granted an injunction against Jackson, ordering him to give news reporters access to the new actions on the day they are filed, with exceptions in some categories such as filings that need to be seen immediately by a judge.
Last year, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in the Central District of California ruled along the same lines, enjoining the clerk in Ventura, California, from withholding the new cases from the press while he processed them, a decision the clerk and the California Supreme Court's rulemaking body, the Judicial Council, have appealed.
And in another ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in the Southern District of New York enjoined the state court clerk in Manhattan from withholding the new electronic filings while he processed them.