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    Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
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    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.

    Briefs & Comments

    • NYT v. DOJ, No. 13-422
      April 22, 2013

      The New York Times Company and the American Civil Liberties Union sought records under the federal Freedom of Information Act detailing the U.S. government’s policies for when it can conduct drone strikes and when it can kill a U.S. citizen. In particular, the Times and the ACLU sought memos prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the President. After the government refused to release the records, the Times and the ACLU sued.

    • Letter to Attorney General Holder regarding U.S. Marshals Service's mug shot release policy
      January 30, 2013

      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. 

    • Lawson v. Office of the Attorney General
      January 28, 2013

      Media organizations in 2008 sought the release of a proffer statement given by Leonard Lawson in 1983 when Kentucky officials were investigating antitrust allegations. Lawson sued to enjoin the release of the record, arguing that the privacy and law enforcement exemptions of the state public records law applied. The trial court held that neither exception was applicable, ordering the release of the document. Lawson argues that the privacy exception should apply because the time lapse between when the document was created and when it was created increases the privacy harm.

    • McBurney v. Young
      January 2, 2013

      After two non-state residents requested records under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, Virginia officials denied the requests because they were not citizens of Virginia. The first, a former Virginian, was seeking records about delinquent child support payments he was due. The second, a California businessman, was seeking records for his data brokerage firm. After both requests were denied, the parties filed a lawsuit arguing that the VFOIA's citizenship requirement violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause and Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

    • Center for International Environmental Law v. U.S. Office of Trade Representative
      October 31, 2012

      The Center for International Environmental Law brought suit under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") seeking the disclosure of government records relating to a failed round of trade negotiations. The government withheld a document under FOIA's Exemption 1, which permits federal agencies to withhold information that has been properly classified. The trial court ordered the release of the document, holding that the government had failed to show that releasing the document would cause harm to national security or foreign policy interests. The government appealed to the U.S.

    • Letter to Department of Justice on public meetings
      June 22, 2012

      The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter to Department of Justice officials urging them to immediately abandon an apparent internal policy of ordering journalists not to record or quote its attorneys’ statements at public meetings.

    • Letter to R.I. Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee
      June 15, 2012

      The Reporters Committee urged the governor to sign into law H 7555, which would amend the public records act to increase access to certain records and improve enforcement of the Act.

    • Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service
      May 8, 2012

      RCFP, along with eleven other organizations, signed on to an amicus brief in a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia urging the court to find that U.S. Secret Service White House complex visitor logs are "agency records" under the federal Freedom of Information Act and that the Secret Service is required to process a request for such records in compliance with FOIA.

    • Marken v. Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
      March 26, 2012

      The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a letter brief in support of California resident Michael Chwe's petition to the California Supreme Court for review of a lower court ruling allowing a public employee who is the subject of a public records request to preemptively file a lawsuit challenging an agency's decision to release the record. If such a ruling is allowed to stand, it will have the effect of reversing the presumption of public access to records in the state by forcing the public to demonstrate at the outset why a particular record should be disclosed.

    • Comments to Maryland House Committee on Health & Government Operations re: House Bill 62
      February 23, 2012

      HB 62 proposes an amendment to the current exemption for “research projects” in Maryland's public information act that would allow public universities to withhold from disclosure wide categories of records "produced or collected by" faculty members.

    • Amicus brief in Asgeirsson, et al. v. Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott and State of Texas
      October 27, 2011

      Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (New Orleans) to hold that the criminal sanction provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act are not an unconstitutional restraint on government officials' First Amendment rights.

    • Amicus brief in Project Vote/Voting for America v. Long
      October 21, 2011

      Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to hold that Virginia voting applications are subject to the public disclosure provisions of the National Voter Registration Act.

    • Amicus brief in Chicago Tribune Company v. Univ. of Ill. Bd. of Trustees
      August 19, 2011

      Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to hold that the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act is not a valid basis to withhold records under the Illinois open records laws related to official university misconduct regarding a secret preferred admissions process for privileged applicants.

    • Amicus brief in Data Trace Information Services, LLC v. Recorder of Cuyahoga County
      June 15, 2011

      Urging the Ohio Supreme Court to find that country recorders cannot impose a $2 per page statutory "photocopying" fee for electronic copies of public records and that such records must be provided "at cost" as required under the Ohio public records law.

    • Amicus brief in Karantsalis v. Dep't of Justice et al.
      May 2, 2011

      Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to rehear en banc a three-judge panel decision finding that a federal prisoner's privacy interest in his mug shot outweighs the public interest in its disclosure such that it may be withheld under exemption 7(C) to FOIA.