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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Brutal TNT Editorial on Soter Case

The Tacoma News-Tribune hits the nail on the head in this editorial on why the Soter decision was a double blow to public disclosure.

Addressing the court's broadening of the attorney work-product exemption, the TNT writes: "The court essentially said that public agencies can keep records secret forever by outsourcing their investigations to lawyers."

On the court's decision to allow agencies to preemptively sue requestors (this is not a typo), the TNT writes, "The maneuver worked, and now the Supreme Court has sanctioned it, giving all public agencies the green light to use taxpayer dollars to file what smacks of strategic lawsuits against public participation."