Ohio

 The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether a deleted government e-mail file qualifies as a public document subject to state open records requests, according to The (Toledo) Blade.  

Ohio's state Supreme Court is grappling with the same privacy and transparency dilemma the federal courts dealt with several years ago, deciding what personal information should appear in public records posted on court Web sites. 

A Cincinnati-based alternative weekly sued local prosecutors, police and clergymen in federal district court Tuesday, saying their efforts to banish adult advertisements have violated the paper's First Amendment rights.

The complaint alleges a "conspiracy" to violate CityBeat's First Amendment rights, seen in the public officials' partnership with religious groups in protesting the ads.

Two reporters from The Plain Dealer [Cleveland] were ejected from a public meeting Thursday after Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora refused to answer their questions.

Dealer metro editor Chris Quinn said it was unacceptable behavior, but noted that the newspaper didn't lose access completely since it had a third reporter covering the meeting who wasn’t ordered to leave.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state failed to provide evidence for not disclosing names of some foster parents following a records request submitted by The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2006.

In the unanimous decision, the court rejected the state's blanket denial of the Enquirer’s request for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' entire foster home database.

An Ohio newspaper is fighting two subpoenas requiring one of its reporters to testify in the trials of seven defendants accused of drug trafficking.

The Mount Vernon News filed two motions on Friday in support of its reporter, Anton Hepler. The first asks the court to require the prosecutor to show why Helper needs to testify and the other responds to the prosecutor’s threat to get a court order to ban Helper from watching the trial.

Nov. 30, 2007  ·   Journalists are prohibited from writing down, or in any way recording, the names of gun owners kept by county sheriffs, according to an opinion issued earlier this month by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.

The attorney general was asked to step in following a request by a local county prosecutor who sought clarification of a change to the state's public records law, which had confused many journalists and government officials.

Nov. 26, 2007  ·   Open-records advocates reacted wearily this week to the Ohio Supreme Court's proposed new rules for access to court documents, which could block information that is now readily available to the public.

A poorly written concealed-carry permit law in Ohio has just crossed over to the absurd thanks to a written opinion by state Attorney General Marc Dann. 

The (Toledo) Blade reports that  the law as written allows reporters to inspect concealed weapons records but does not allow copies of the records.  It's bad enough that the law already on the books excludes the general public all together.  

Last Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court proposed new rules for public access to court documents.

It is the court's first time to put public records policies for Ohio's courts in writing. The rules process was expedited after lawmakers last session waded into the issue of how court documents should be handled, despite the Ohio Constitution placing authority over their handling under the high court.