Open records

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th Cir.) today ordered the dismissal of an open records-related lawsuit filed by the Chicago Tribune against the University of Illinois, ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals partially affirmed a lower court's ruling on Friday, finding that the city of Hopkinsville properly redacted certain information about victims and witnesses in police reports and arrest citations requested by the Kentucky New Era.

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that police dispatch logs are not automatically exempt from public disclosure as investigation records under the state’s Access to Public Records Act.

The names of city of Long Beach police officers involved in shootings are subject to disclosure under the California Open Records Act, a California appeals court ruled this week.

The Second Appellate Court District upheld a lower court's finding that the release of the names of Long Beach police officers who were involved in shootings was not an invasion of privacy and the names were not protected as part of personnel or investigative files under the law.

A federal court in Washington state lifted an order preventing the release of the identities of more than 137,000 people who signed a 2009 petition to challenge a Washington law that would extend benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act is heading to the state Supreme Court in what will likely be a legal battle over whether prosecutors can pursue misdemeanor criminal charges for violations of the broadly-worded law.

The case centers around Circuit Judge James Cox's ruling declaring parts of the state’s FOIA unconstitutional. Cox wrote in his decision that the definition of “meeting” and the criminal penalties for violations contained in the law are "unconstitutionally vague."

The Brennan Center for Justice released a report today on government overclassification, and proposed a pilot program for the federal government that calls for accountability when employees improperly classify documents.