Parole
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.
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Jamal 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.”
Read morePublic Records
Offices of individual legislators are “agencies” under Washington’s Public Records Act and subject to its general disclosure mandate, the state’s Supreme Court ruled. However, the state’s Senate, House of Representatives and Legislature are not “agencies” and are subject to a narrower disclosure mandate.
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California AG Faces Tough Slog in Bid to Dodge Police Transparency Law
The California Department of Justice defended its withholding of police misconduct files before a panel of three state appellate justices Thursday, insisting that compliance with a landmark transparency law would place undue strain on agency resources.
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Washington High Court Rules Legislators Subject to Open Records Law
Washington state lawmakers must share their personal correspondence, drafts of bills and schedules under the state’s Public Records Act, the Evergreen State’s high court justices ruled Thursday.
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California AG Sued to Reveal Names of Police Officers in Legal Settlements
First Amendment advocates have escalated efforts to force California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra to comply with public records law, filing a petition in state court Thursday demanding his office reveal the identities of law enforcement officers involved in legal settlements.
Read moreRefinery Explosion
After a February 2015 explosion and chemical release at an ExxonMobile refinery in Torrance, California, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Board made hundreds of requests for information from the oil company. A federal court improperly determined that five of those requests were unenforceable, the Ninth Circuit ruled.
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House Committee Blasts White House Agency for Ukraine Funds Abuse
Nearly two months after a Democratic-led House committee initiated an investigation into the White House Office of Management and Budget’s hold-up of security assistance to Ukraine, the panel reported the documents they received show a pattern of abuse in the apportionment process.
Read moreMike Pompeo
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive sued Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in federal court, claiming he illegally refuses to document State Department policies, decision and essential transactions, actions that are “directly related to President Donald J. Trump’s violations of the Presidential Records Act.”
Read moreBYU Files Suit in Fight Over University Police Public Records
In an ongoing dispute over public access, Brigham Young University filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to stop a newspaper from obtaining emails from the school’s police department, claiming that they are considered private.
Read moreJudges Turn Up Heat on Feds Over Stalled Records Requests
Tired and frustrated, federal judges are strategically ordering government agencies to pick up the pace in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests to pressure Congress into allocating more funding to offices tasked with releasing records to the public.
Read moreRudy Giuliani
American Oversight sued the State Department in federal court for records on Rudy Giuliani’s and attorneys Victoria Toensing’s and Joseph diGenova’s communications with State Department officials on “any … effort to encourage the Ukrainian government to investigate any matter related to former Vice President Joseph Biden or his son Hunter Biden.”
Read moreUS Gives Court No Assurances on Records Preservation
An attorney representing the White House refused Tuesday to guarantee a federal judge that communications between President Donald Trump and foreign leaders will be preserved.
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Oregon Public Records Advocate Resigns
Oregon Governor Kate Brown appointed the state’s first public records advocate in 2018 as part of a campaign to improve transparency, but her office stymied the chance of that happening, according to advocate Ginger McCall, who said in her resignation letter Monday that she was pressured to act secretly in the governor’s best interests.
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