Pandemic Won’t Slow Fight Over Sealed Jeffrey Epstein Docs
The federal judge who holds the key to secret records concerning the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein refused Tuesday afternoon to approve a monthlong delay in the case.
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Political Enemies
Former Panama City Beach City Clerk Mary Jan Bossert sued the city in Bay County Court, claiming it fired her for fulfilling a legitimate public records request from a local talk show host who is a political enemy of the mayor and a City Council member.
Read moreCalifornia Courts Shutting Doors: ‘Does Not Warrant Secrecy’
As California courts scramble to comply with a statewide shelter-in-place order, First Amendment advocates and press groups are asking Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to ensure that the media and public can still cover court hearings, which are ongoing, and review new court records, which continue to be filed.
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Ninth Circuit Tightens Focus of Abortion Foe’s Look at Lab Researcher Files
Anti-abortion activist David Daleiden may see some unredacted public records on a group of employees and researchers affiliated with the University of Washington’s Birth Defects Research Center but the identities of five employees are protected from disclosure, the Ninth Circuit ruled Wednesday.
Read moreFOIA Requests
A federal court in Washington upheld a majority of Freedom of Information Act request withholdings challenged by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman who seeks every record in federal intelligence agencies’ files that mentions his name. Gellman, who is writing a book about intelligence gathering, reported on documents leaked to him from Edward Snowden.
Read moreCourt Documents
The Washington Supreme Court vacated a writ of mandamus that compelled a court clerk to comply with a rule the judges of Benton and Franklin Counties Superior Court issued ordering clerks to maintain paper files of court documents. The clerk prefers to maintain the records electronically and prints out a copy of an electric file when a judge requests a paper version.
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ACLU Demands Records on Ever-Widening Facial-Recognition Tech
By this time last year, more than 20 million plane and cruise ship passengers had submitted to the U.S. government’s facial-recognition software. As to how that information is processed or retained, however, the records are not public.
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The Hawaii Supreme Court overturned a ruling in favor of the state’s attorney general in a public records dispute brought by the Honolulu Civil Beat relating to a report of an investigation of the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
Read moreYarnell Hill Fire
The Ninth Circuit ruled against a firefighter seeking records relating to the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013, which killed 19 firefighters in Arizona. The court ruled that even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture once held the records the firefighter seeks, there is no question that the department’s search for them was adequate.
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The Seattle Times sued the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for 521 pages of its investigation of alleged sexual assaults by at least six members of the 2018 state champion Eastside Catholic High School football team, in King County Court.
Read moreRecords Request
A federal court in Washington ruled that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence properly withheld certain documents relating to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act by a Buzzfeed reporter and government transparency nonprofit director.
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Jail Statistics Give the Lie to Trump Asylum Policy
Many U.S. holding cells along the Mexican border were less than half full, even empty, during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families from Central America, newly unsealed court documents show, raising questions about the Trump administration’s claims that it had to make people wait in Mexico because it didn’t have the means to accommodate them.
Read moreHunting and Fishing
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish was obligated to disclose the names and email addresses of everyone who applied for a hunting or fishing permit pursuant to a citizen’s public records request, an appeals court in the state ruled. The state argued disclosure of the information threatened the privacy of residents and could open hunters up to harassment.
Read moreAppeals Court Rules California Must Release Police Misconduct Records
California’s Department of Justice cannot withhold records related to officer-involved shootings, use of excessive force and other police misconduct, the First District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday.
Read moreParole
Michael Brodheim, a graduate student in public administration, sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for information on the racial makeup of prisoners who apply for parole, in San Francisco Superior Court.
Read moreJamal Khashoggi
A federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies sued by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Knight First Amendment Institute for records relating to the intelligence community’s “duty to warn” journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
Read moreVeterans
The National Veterans Legal Services Program sued the Department of Defense in federal court, claiming it illegally prevents the public from inspecting published decisions by discharge review boards and military records boards.
Read moreEnvironment
WildEarth Guardians sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in federal court for information on its attempt to “consider designating more desert federal public lands in Southern California for energy development.”
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