NJFOG Statement of Opposition to Bill S1232: “Good Faith” defense will undermine OPRA

UPDATE (6/15/2018): Bill A4532 / S3049 in the 2016-2017 legislative session was re-introduced as A2542 / S1232 in the 2018-2019 session. Bill S1232 passed out of Senate committee on 6/14/2018. UPDATE (5/2/2017): On 5/1/17, Bill A4532 was received in the Senate and referred to the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee. UPDATE Read More …

Watchdog group sues for Christie-Kushner emails

A Mercer County lawsuit filed by MapLight, a California-based watchdog group, challenges the propriety of leaving to a private citizen and his private law firm the discretion to grant or deny access to public records. The private citizen in this case is the state’s former governor, and the records being sought are email communications relating Read More …

Court requires EPA to provide documention behind Pruitt’s public statements

Ruling on a FOIA lawsuit brought by a public advocacy group, a federal judge has ordered disclosure of documents that back up EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s public statements with regard to climate change that he made on CNBC last year. The EPA must provide the documents by July 2 or else an explanation by July Read More …

Incident reports regarding jail fatality are disclosable under OPRA

Upholding a lower court, an Appellate Court ruled on 6/4/2018 that incident reports relating to a Union County jail inmate’s death are disclosable, subject to appropriate redactions for personal identifiers. The Court rejected the argument that an incident report is exempt from disclosure as a medical record.   NJ Open Government Notes Appeals court rules Read More …