While open government advocates rhapsodize about every judicial victory that advances the cause of public agency accountability, it is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Court of Appeals’ October 27 opinion in “Kentucky Open Government Coalition v Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission.”

The ability of people to get records that are supposed to be made publicly available has been “deteriorating terribly,” according to David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. A nonprofit organization called MuckRock has found that about 10 years ago such efforts were successful about half the time. Today, that’s down to about 18%.

When the Las Vegas Review-Journal investigated consumer complaints about the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, the agency responded to FOIA requests with an initial demand for $650,000. David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, said excessive copy fees are one of the most common barriers people have in accessing their government—only behind delays and arbitrary denials.

A 2017 change in the Massachusetts public records law has resulted in agencies paying out large sums after ignoring or rejecting public records requests. “It sends a message to the government agencies that they can't continue playing games with the public's right-to-know without any kind of consequence,” Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition

After two years of denying that detailed COVID-19 data relating to 2021 infections and vaccines existed, and then being forced by a court to turn it over, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health have agreed to a settlement that will require the state to disclose coronavirus data on its web site and pay attorney’s fees for attempting to circumvent state public records law.

The city of Detroit has a transparency problem. In a little more than a year, the city has either ignored Metro Times’ Freedom of Information Act requests or taken months to respond, despite a state law that requires records to be produced within three weeks.

Public records, accountability and transparency are nothing new to North Carolina's State Treasurer. No matter the political affiliation of those who hold the office, the duties are about access to information and data. It is no small matter that the current Treasurer Dale Folwell - a former Republican state legislator - took time this week to admonish his former colleagues for their subterfuge and secrecy.

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency on Wednesday (Oct. 11) unveiled an amendment draft that would ensconce the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into the state constitution. The move follows Gov. Sarah Sanders’ attempt earlier this year to weaken the FOIA. The draft not only seeks to make the existing FOIA part of the constitution but would better define a public meeting and add harsher penalties for those who violate the law.

North Carolina’s Republican legislative majority, joined by a handful of Democrats, has decided that the state’s public records law shouldn’t apply to them. A supermajority of the General Assembly passed a sweeping legislative privilege Friday allowing lawmakers to keep secret any document made or received during their public service “in all instances.”

The Colorado county’s sheriff’s office recently mandated that a notarized form is required to obtain public records. But critics worry the new rule is an unprecedented and unlawful burden.

If you make public records requests in North Carolina, you are undoubtedly familiar with N.C. law which requires a public body to furnish responsive records “as promptly as possible.” You have also likely experienced firsthand that “as promptly as possible” can mean different things to the requester and to the public body records custodian. How did we end up with this wording, and what have our courts said about public bodies that delay, delay, delay? What can you do to push back?

A bipartisan bill would create a state ombudsperson to intervene when public records requests are denied. But an advocacy group is concerned that it will encourage state agencies to go to court. While previous bills failed, Assembly Bill 469 has passed unanimously through committees and the full Assembly.

(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.

Thousands of police disciplinary records are expected to be released to the public as soon as this week, offering a long-awaited glimpse into police misconduct cases across the state.

MuckRock’s first two rounds of Gateway Grantees are using DocumentCloud to reveal those secretly profiting from the destruction of Brazil’s rainforests, probe police misconduct in Chicago and much more. Now’s your chance to pitch a project that uses primary source documents to help inform and strengthen the public while leveraging AI, distributed storage and other leading technologies, baked right into DocumentCloud.

The "Government Transparency Act" was filed with the California attorney general's office on Wednesday and, if approved by voters, would require lawmakers to provide details about their meetings with lobbyists, political fundraising events and investigations of misconduct. The measure would also set stricter standards for government agencies, mandating they more quickly and comprehensively provide documents to the public.

The California city became one of the first to implement a strict set of guidelines for use of the artificial intelligence tool and clarified that ChatGPT is subject to the state’s Public Records Act. The city is making one thing clear up front: Be careful what you do with this new-fangled gizmo.

A few federal agencies have started to use sophisticated artificial intelligence tools to help deal with immense caseloads of Freedom of Information Act requests, but some transparency advocates warn that the government needs additional safeguards before more widely deploying the technology.

In a case that tested Oregon's new anti-doxing law, the state Court of Appeals rejected a claim by Newberg school board members who sought compensation for social media postings they claimed were illegal sharing of private information.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal has sued the state's Union County, asking a judge to order that search warrants in its county-level justice court be made open for public inspection.

The lawsuit comes after an investigation in 2022 by the Daily Journal and ProPublica found that almost two-thirds of Mississippi’s justice courts obstruct access to search warrants and to the affidavits used by police to obtain them.