New Jersey’s public records law is a ‘sword and shield’ against corruption, citizens say

Bills before lawmakers would restrict how often you can file requests, among other changes

By: Dana Difilippo - September 5, 2023

(S)everal bills now in the legislative pipeline in Trenton would weaken OPRA, with proposals to let government officials cap the number and “scope” of requests people can make, bar people who are denied records from appealing to a judge right away, take more time to respond to requests, redact phone numbers, email addresses, and social media information from records, and exempt volunteer fire companies from OPRA.

This comes as policymakers in recent years have chipped away at the Open Public Records Act and access to public records, and resisted efforts to open more government documents up for public inspection.

“You cannot be a detective if you don’t have tools to gather evidence, and OPRA is your tool if you’re an ordinary citizen. I can’t imagine this tool being watered down,” Mabry said. “Transparency is the bulwark of democracy. If an ordinary citizen cannot get evidence against someone they know is acting above the law, then we don’t have a democracy anymore.”