Public records

States do not violate the U.S. Constitution when their public records laws prevent out-of-state residents from accessing government records, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

Business executives under investigation or being questioned about price fixing practices -- but not yet charged -- will no longer be publicly named in corporate plea agreement documents submitted to courts by the Department of Justice.

The new policy will also completely exclude from plea agreements the names of employees who are not cooperating with the price-fixing or bid-rigging investigation, as well as those who can’t be tracked down or are still being investigated. If they are charged, their names will be made public.

A federal appeals court Friday denied a journalist access to reports on American International Group (AIG) prepared by an independent consultant under an agreement with federal regulators for alleged securities law violations.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., unanimously reversed an earlier opinion granting journalist Sue Reisinger access to the documents.

A Tennessee judge ruled this week that the state Department of Children’s Services must make public child fatality records, allowing news organizations to investigate the high number of fatalities of children under the state’s care.

Maryland's highest court today ruled that redacted state police records of racial profiling complaints can be made public under the state’s Public Information Act in Maryland Department of State Police v. Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches.

New York’s sweeping new gun control bill, signed into law on Tuesday, will allow gun owners to keep the fact that they own a weapon private, changing the previous version of the law that required such records to be public.

Supporting documents can remain hidden when filed in a court case that settles before a decision is reached, according to a ruling last week by the Washington state Supreme Court.

According to the state constitution, “justice in all cases shall be administered openly,” creating a presumption of public access to court documents in most cases. The state’s courts had previously interpreted that part of the constitution to apply only to documents that were “part of the administration of justice.”

An Alaska Supreme Court decision makes private e-mail messages containing government business subject to the state Public Records Act but also makes obtaining those records difficult.

Friday's ruling held that the state Public Records Act does not prohibit public officials from conducting government business through their private e-mail accounts, potentially posing difficulties for people seeking to access those messages in the future, Alaska media lawyer D. John McKay said in an interview.

Documents related to the 2007 sexual assault arrests of two University of Iowa football players will remain private, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision Friday.