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Our quarterly magazine: Fall 2009
Keep up to date on the unprecedented number of federal subpoenas and shield bills in Congress. FOI SERVICES Get Freedom of Information assistance, including our Automatic FOI Letter Generator. Get it by e-mail Have the latest news stories e-mailed to you every two weeks. Sign up for news releases from the Reporters Committee View our press releases View our amicus briefs, protest letters, public comments, and other documents. HOTLINE Journalists can call our toll-free legal defense hotline with questions about how the law affects the gathering and reporting of news. ABOUT US Who we are and what we do -- information about our history, our mission, and our Steering Committee. We also have bios of our current staff, and information on working with us as an intern or legal fellow. This site is designed to provide information to journalists and media lawyers at any time, and to let you know of the services and support we offer. Journalists needing help with specific questions or problems can send us a message or contact us by phone at 800-336-4243. | |||||||||
news feedQUICKLINK U.S. Supreme Court · November 20, 2009 · Freedom of information
ACLU urges Supreme Court to let FOIA ruling stand
In an effort to salvage a favorable federal appellate court ruling on the Freedom of Information Act, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to refuse the government's request to vacate the court order requiring release of images depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. custody abroad.
The ACLU's years-long battle over release of specific images from Iraq and Afghanistan ended last month when President Barack Obama . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 3:57 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · November 20, 2009 · Secret courts
Experts discuss state secrets privilege at forum
Experts collaborated and debated “the state of the state secrets privilege” at a forum hosted by American University Washington College of Law on Wednesday.
The school's Collaboration on Government Secrecy brought together scholars, government specialists and policy practitioners to discuss the history of the privilege, its place in the Obama administration, how it would ideally be reformed and how it is likely to be reformed.
New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil . . . [more]
— Brooke Ericson, 3:49 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · November 20, 2009 · Newsgathering
Fort Bragg officials will restrict media access at Sarah Palin event
The U.S. Army's decision to limit media access at a Sarah Palin's public book signing scheduled for Monday at Fort Bragg prompted a media outcry yesterday.
Fort Bragg officials announced Thursday morning that the base would be open to the general public but that media would not be allowed to cover the event, the Fayetteville Observer reported. An Army official cited concerns that media presence would create a forum for criticizing President Barack Obama.
The Observer's editor wrote a letter . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 3:01 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · November 19, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Judiciary Committee rejects shield bill amendments
The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted down two proposed amendments to federal shield legislation and indicated that a committee or Senate vote may occur in the near future -- even if Republican opposition prompts sponsors to bypass the committee entirely.
While some senators, including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., John Cornyn, R-Tx., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., expressed lingering concerns over various aspects of the bill, the Obama administration recommended the legislation stay in its current form in a Nov. 4 letter to the committee from Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.
After protracted discussion over proposed amendments, one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., pressed for the committee to vote on the legislation as soon as possible.
“If you still can’t vote for this bill, you don’t really want any protections for . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 5:49 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New York · November 18, 2009 · Prior restraints
CIA legally censored ex-operative's memoir, appeals court rules
The CIA did not violate the First Amendment rights of ex-undercover agent Valerie Plame Wilson when it refused to allow her to publish information about her work with the agency in her 2007 memoir, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City (2nd Cir.) has ruled.
The appellate court found that even though the dates of Wilson's . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:50 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington · November 17, 2009 · State open government
Washington city refuses to settle suit over e-mail messages
A Washington city rejected a local open government activist's offer last week to settle a public records suit in which a state appeals court has ordered it to pay what could amount to $110,000 in legal fees, The Daily Herald reported.
The Monroe City Council refused Meredith Mechling's offer to settle a suit over e-mail messages she requested in 2006 that two state courts ordered the city hand over. Mechling wanted $192,950 to cover both her legal fees and public . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 4:13 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Wisconsin · November 17, 2009 · State open government
Wisconsin prison hands over grenade video, settles suit
Wisconsin prison officials have released video footage of a guard detonating a grenade typically used for outdoor crowd control in the cell of an individual prisoner after the Associated Press sued to obtain a copy of the footage, the news agency reported.
The release effectively settles the lawsuit, which the AP filed last month after the Department of Corrections refused to hand over a video that showed a guard throwing a nonlethal stinger grenade into the prisoner's cell. In addition, the department has also agreed to pay $5,000 in attorney fees that the AP would have been entitled to if it had won its case in court, said Robert Dreps, an attorney at Godfrey & Kahn who represented the AP.
The AP requested the video under Wisconsin's freedom of information laws after the department settled a $49,000 lawsuit with the 135-pound inmate, Raynard Jackson, who claimed the use of the grenade constituted excessive force and caused hearing loss.
The department initially denied the request for . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 4:02 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Michigan · November 17, 2009 · State open government
State police want nearly $7 million to fulfill FOIA request
The Michigan Department of State Police is charging the Mackinac Center for Public Policy nearly $7 million to fulfill its FOIA request for information on how the state has used homeland security grant money since 2002, the nonpartisan research group reported.
A communications specialist at the center requested information after the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general released a report that detailed multiple implementation problems in how $129 million in security grants was spent in seven Michigan . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 2:19 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Florida · November 17, 2009 · Secret courts
Report: Two finalists for U.S. attorney spot supported secrecy
The Broward Bulldog reported last week that two of the three finalists for a U.S. attorney post in southern Florida have been involved in controversies regarding court records -- one for altering a docket in apparent violation of state law and another who helped prosecute a secret case in the wake of Sept. 11.
According to the Bulldog, the list included Judge Daryl Trawick, who had a court clerk alter a public docket in 2002 at the request of state prosecutors who sought to protect an informant -- Florida law . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 2:17 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE West Virginia · November 16, 2009 · Freedom of information
Judicial email not public in West Virginia
Personal e-mail messages on government accounts are not public records, even when they are between a judge and a party to a pending case, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled Nov. 12.
In the 4-1 ruling, the court held that former Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard could keep private all of the 13 messages he exchanged with Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship last year. At that time, Massey Energy — one of the largest coal producers in Appalachia — had several cases pending before the court, including the appeal of a $50 million jury verdict.
The Associated Press was initially denied access to the messages under West Virginia's public records law but won release of at least five of the messages when a lower court ruled they were public records because they dealt with Maynard’s judicial campaign. Last week's ruling put all of the messages out of the public's reach.
"We conclude that not one of the 13 e-mails was related in . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 6:51 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New York · November 16, 2009 · Newsgathering
New York paper fights website commenter subpoena
A New York newspaper is engaged in a battle to quash a grand jury subpoena for the identities of some of its website commenters.
Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips last month served The (Chester) Chronicle with a subpoena seeking information about two anonymous posters. The prosecutor's subpoena came after a string of informal requests from Chester public officials including Mayor Philip Valastro and School Superintendent Helen Ann Livingston, as well as a police officer who . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 6:48 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. · November 16, 2009 · Freedom of information
Pentagon blocks release of all Bush-era detainee abuse photos
Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week blocked the further release of any pictures depicting abuse of foreign detainees in American custody, the Associated Press reported.
Gates' order specifically mentioned 21 photographs requested by the American Civil Liberties Union, which were the subject of a protracted public records lawsuit. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the order extends beyond those to include all photographs of the treatment of individuals captured or detained . . . [more]
— Brooke Ericson, 5:48 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Illinois · November 11, 2009 · Secret courts
Seventh circuit keeps police disciplinary records hidden
Disciplinary records related to citizen complaints against Chicago police officers will not be released to the public in a lawsuit brought by a reporter and local government officials, a federal appeals court ruled Nov. 10.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th Cir.) overturned a 2007 decision to unseal disciplinary records of eight Chicago police officers sought by journalist Jamie Kalven and 28 alderman -- elected Chicago officials who represent different wards within the city.
The records had been evidence in a lawsuit against the officers for alleged misconduct that were sealed under a protective order agreed upon by the parties in that case. The police misconduct case settled out of court but the disciplinary records never made it into the case file. Kalven and the alderman intervened in the case to unseal the records, noting the great public interest in them.
Although the district court lifted the protective order, unsealing the records and allowing either party to release them, the Seventh Circuit ruled that there was no public right of access to . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 4:01 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · November 10, 2009 · Freedom of information
Police use-of-force reports are public records in New Jersey
A New Jersey appeals court on Monday ruled that police use-of-force reports -- generated any time a police offer uses force against a citizen -- are public records and cannot be withheld as criminal investigatory records.
Attorneys for West Milford, a township in northern New Jersey, appealed a state trial court's ruling that the records should be released, arguing that it did not have to hand over the use-of-force reports to local residents and open-records activist Martin O'Shea because the documents were . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 3:36 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Pennsylvania · November 10, 2009 · Newsgathering
Justice Department issued secret subpoena for news site's traffic
The Department of Justice earlier this year served and shortly thereafter withdrew a grand jury subpoena that sought information about all visitors to the journalism website Indymedia.us for one day, and also contained a gag order "not to disclose the existence of [the] request," CBSNews.com reports.
In the Jan. 23 subpoena the Justice Department demanded that the Philadelphia-based site’s server . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 3:17 pm · View reader comments (1)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · November 9, 2009 · Secret courts
Litigants ask court to save state secrets rulings
A group of plaintiffs on Friday asked a judge to deny the government's request to vacate his rulings in a recently-settled state secrets case, The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times reported.
The $3 million settlement in Horn v. Huddle – in which a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent claimed a CIA officer and a State Department official intercepted his communications while he was serving in Burma – was revealed last week in court papers. In July, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that CIA officials committed fraud in defending the case.
In light of the settlement, government lawyers asked Lamberth to vacate his rulings in the case. According to The BLT, the rulings “deal with whether a federal district judge may decline, in a state secrets case, to give a high degree of deference to the government’s assertion of the privilege when the . . . [more]
— Rory Eastburg, 6:07 pm · Comments: 0
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