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Public Access
to Legislative Information
Eddie Weeks
Legislative Librarian
Tennessee General Assembly
Public Access
to
Legislative Information
Public Access
to
Legislative Information
“WELL, THAT DEPENDS… ARE YOU
ASKING ABOUT THE DICTIONARY
DEFINITION OR THE INTERNET
DEFINTION OF “PRIVACY”?”
McBurney et al v. Young
(April 2013)
Can you deny access to noncitizens and
citizens of another state?
“Virginia’s FOIA exists to provide a
mechanism for Virginia citizens to obtain
an accounting from their public officials;
noncitizens have no comparable need.”
Public Access
to
Legislative Information
Public Access
to
Legislative Information
Los Angeles Times et al
v. California Legislature
(Dec. 2011)
“…even if the requested records might
implicate some deliberative process on the
part of the member with regard to their
individual budgets, the court is persuaded
that the strong public interest in disclosure
outweighs any reasons for keeping the
records secret.”
John and Jane Doe 1-36 et al
v. State of Nebraska (May 2012)
“…not every communication between a
government agency and government
attorneys is protected by attorney-client
privilege.”
“…attorney-client protection is not
available to a government agency simply
because the communication involves the
government’s counsel…”
“In Re: A WITNESS BEFORE THE
SPECIAL GRAND JURY” (April 2002)
“…we are more persuaded by the serious
arguments against extending the attorney-
client privilege to protect communications
between government lawyers and the public
officials they serve…”
“…government lawyers have a higher,
competing duty to act in the public interest.”
“In Re: A WITNESS BEFORE THE
SPECIAL GRAND JURY”
“…the duty of public lawyers to
uphold the law and foster an open and
accountable government outweigh any
need for a privilege…”
(Previous slides from
gizmodo.com and
infocus.com,
“World’s Worst
PowerPoint Slides”
competition)
“WHO SAYS THE GOVERNMENT
DOESN’T HAVE AN IRONIC
SENSE OF HUMOR…”
Thank
you.
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