Briefs & Comments

Comments by the Reporters Committee on the draft recommendations by California's Bench-Bar-Media Committee on various issues, including camera access to courts, gag orders, and the sealing of judicial documents.

Urging the Maryland Court of Appeals to hold that police internal investigatory records regarding allegations of racial profiling are not "personnel" records under the Maryland Public Information Act subject to withholding and must be disclosed to the public upon request.

Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a broad reading of Exemption 2 under the federal Freedom of Information Act, commonly known as a "High 2" exemption, that has been accepted by some courts and rejected by others.

Urging the D.C. Court of Appeals to overturn a prior restraint on publication of information from a publicly available court file that was supposed to be sealed.

Elena Kagan has worked on free-speech and free-press issues more than any recent high court nominee, but her writings tend to explore the underpinnings of current doctrines and standards, rather than argue for or against any particular approach. She has also expressed skepticism with how workable the “actual malice” libel standard and a reporter’s privilege are, and whether those standards need to be reworked.

Urging the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia to find that the state's freedom of information act does not require public records to have been physically "prepared" by the public body in the first instance, and thus to order the clerk to release the signatures on a voter referendum petition.

Urging the Ohio Supreme Court to grant a writ of prohibition to prevent a judge from enforcing a gag order prohibiting the media from reporting on trial proceedings.