Report: Gov. Cuomo vetoes transparency laws

Glens Falls Post-Star:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the weekend vetoed two laws intended to strengthen the Freedom of Information Law process but issued an executive order to expedite the process of receiving government documents, but only for state agencies.

Blair Horner, legislative director of New York Public Interest Research Group, said it is odd that Cuomo vetoed the measures when Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee on Open Government, recommended both measures in the state agency’s annual report...

Public interest advocacy groups and newspaper editorial boards advocated for both measures...

The Freedom of Information Law guarantees public access to government documents and records, with certain specific exceptions.

One of the bills the governor vetoed would have required state agencies to pay legal fees and court costs when a court rules that documents have been withheld without a reasonable basis...

The other bill Cuomo vetoed reduced the time public agencies have to appeal a court decision on access to public records — from nine months to two months.

Cuomo on Saturday issued an executive order that requires state agencies to file notice of an appeal, settle the record on the appeal and file a legal brief within 60 days.

New York’s highest court issues new decisions

The New York State Court of Appeals has issued a number of new decisions this week on several important issues in civil and criminal law.

Among the cases, the state’s high court ruled on the following issues:

• whether the Family Court may direct continuing contact between a jailed parent and his child once parental rights have been terminated due to permanent neglect;
• whether the trial court’s error in denying a criminal defendant's requests for a severance based on the improper joinder of certain counts relating only to a co-defendant is harmless;
• whether the landlord of a New York City loft who has not complied with the Loft Law may maintain an ejectment action based on non-payment of rent;
• whether a college baseball pitcher assumed the risk of injury associated with his indoor practice;
• whether a historian is entitled under the Freedom of Information Law to unredacted transcripts of interviews that would identify informants who were promised confidentiality during investigations of school employees suspected of communist party ties.

The decisions are available to the public and can be found at the court’s website.

Federal Law May Force Obama to Make Bin Laden Pics Public

A number of news organizations, including AP, Fox and NPR, are claiming a federal open government law requires the White House to make public the photographs of a deceased Osama Bin Laden.

According to the Atlantic Monthly:

"Pictures of Osama bin Laden and other images from that mission would have compelling news value and public interest," said Dick Meyer, executive editor for news at NPR. "I can foresee circumstances or arguments that would lead us to refrain from publishing the images if we were to get them, but NPR should be in a position to make that decision and not simply accept the government's action."

The National Law Journal notes that national security claims might make the news groups’ difficult, but cites experts who say that the government may, ultimately, have to release the pictures, under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA):

"Theoretically, they could win," said Scott Hodes, who from 1998 to 2002 was the acting unit chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Section's litigation unit and is now a solo practitioner in Washington. "It will not be an easy decision. There are reasons on both sides."

The FOIA requires that all federal agency records be accessible to the public unless there exists a specific exemption....

In addition to news organizations, a number of groups have announces plans to file suit to obtain the materials, including the open government group Judicial Watch.

"President Obama's decision not to release the bin Laden photos is at odds with his promises to make his administration the most transparent in history," wrote the group. "Judicial Watch hopes its FOIA requests will provide a mechanism to release these records in an orderly fashion in compliance with the FOIA law. President Obama's reluctance to spike the football is not a lawful reason for withholding these historic public documents from the American people."

In recent history, from the Pentagon Papers to Wikileaks, the need to balance national security against the right of the citizens to open government is an ongoing, and important, public policy issue. Ultimately, as is so often the case, the issue will likely be decided in the courts.