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 …

NJ Supreme Court requires disclosure of buyers of auctioned public property

On May 23, 2018, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the sale of public property calls for transparency and that the identity of buyers at public auctions must be disclosed in order to guard against fraud and abuse. The particular case before the Court concerned the sale of confiscated sports memorabilia. We note that Read More …

NJ Supreme Court hears argument Re access to police dashcam video

The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments on 2/27/2018 concerning public access to police dashcam video in the case Paff v. Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. The New Jersey Law Journal article below provides a nice summary of the arguments presented on both sides. The hearing comes on the heels of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Read More …

OPRA’s “reason for separation” does not include motivation for resigning, per Appellate Court

An appellate court ruled that “reason for separation” under OPRA does not include an employee’s motivation for resigning. However, the court also ruled that a records request concerning an employee’s separation should prompt a broad search of agency records, not just the employee’s personnel file.   NJ Law Journal Court Limits OPRA’s Scope in Request Read More …