Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.
Nevada: Issued concealed gun permits and their status are public records but the applications for permits are not.
Presumed Open:
New Hampshire: State law requires local officials to administer a handgun licensing program and to collect personal information from individuals applying for the licenses. Although there is no statutory prohibition on disclosing the data, there are no statutes or court decisions affirming that the records are public.
Gun rights advocates demonstrate outside the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. on Feb. 28. The group rallied against the recently legislated NY SAFE Act and other measures they say infringe on their constitutional right to bear arms.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments about the constitutionality of the criminal sanction provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act, ending the long-running legal battle over a statute that prohibits government officials from talking about public business in private.
The Court also declined to hear a case involving a First Amendment defense to a penalty for disclosing sealed records.
The CIA cannot refuse to search for records about U.S. drone strikes on the grounds that acknowledging the existence of the records would harm national security, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled.
As part of a settlement agreement between the FBI and a Tennessee newspaper, the bureau must release documents and photos that are expected to confirm that famed civil rights photographer Ernest Withers was a confidential informant during the civil rights era. Withers died in 2007.
Federal appellate judges on Thursday examined whether the executive branch gets the last word in classifying documents under the Freedom of Information Act's national security exemption.
In oral arguments today, U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned whether access to public records is a fundamental right in a case that will determine whether a state can prohibit non-citizens from obtaining its records.
However, the justices expressed skepticism over whether the purported administrative burdens states face when responding to records requests by non-citizens actually exist.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, joined by 37 media organizations, has written to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., asking that a recently enacted Marshals Service policy to block the release of federal criminal booking photographs be rescinded.
In December 2012, the U.S. Marshals Service announced a new policy that blocks the public release of federal booking photographs pursuant to federal Freedom of Information Act cases. The Reporters Committee's letter, joined by 37 other media organizations, asks the Department of Justice to rescind the new policy, as it violates established case law in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that entitles individuals to obtain mug shots under FOIA for indicted defendants who have made a public court appearance and whose criminal proceeding is ongoing.
Letter to Attorney General Holder regarding U.S. Marshals Service's mug shot release policy
In December 2012, the U.S. Marshals Service announced a new policy that blocks the public release of federal booking photographs pursuant to federal Freedom of Information Act cases. The Reporters Committee's letter, joined by 37 other media organizations, asks the Department of Justice to rescind the new policy, as it violates established case law in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that entitles individuals to obtain mug shots under FOIA for indicted defendants who have made a public court appearance and whose criminal proceeding is ongoing.