State Supreme Court to Hear Sealed Court Records Case

The state Supreme Court will hear the Yakima Herald-Republic's case to obtain court records showing how much Yakima County spent on defense attorneys in a murder case.

NOTE: Allied Law Group represents the Yakima Herald-Republic in the case.

Ruling Gives Seattle Police Oversight Board Access to Files

Now Seattle's police oversight board can see unredacted files so they can do their job.

Here is the Seattle Times story on it, and the Seattle P-I's story.

A Quicker and Cheaper Way to Enforce Open Gov't Laws?

This piece by Jason Mercier at the Washington Policy Center and this story from The Olympian describe the work of a task force set up by the Attorney General and State Auditor to study the creation of an administrative body that, like small claims court, decides Public Records Act and Open Public Meetings Act cases quickly and cheaply--without having to go to court.

However, and this is extremely important, citizens could still go to court for enforcement. The administrative body would be an option.

Here is an editorial on the topic from the Spokesman-Review.

Clark College Sued Under Open Public Meetings Act

Even though the focus is usually on local government bodies, the Open Public Meetings Act applies to state boards and commissions as well.

In this case, the defendant is the Clark College, a state community college. The allegations center on the student association at the college deciding student-election campaign violations and taking a personnel decision in a closed meeting.

City of Seattle Considers Social Networking Sites to Have Potential Open Meetings Problems

The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission has a new draft ethics policy out for city council members. The policy considers Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube to create the potential for Open Public Meetings Act violations.

Good. We hope other local governments are paying attention.

Obama Administration Opposes Federal Reporter Shield Bill

Huh?

A reporter shield law allows reporters to offer complete anonymity to sources who might have information that makes the government mad; shielding whistle blowers leads to more accountability because news stories that otherwise would not happen can be published.

The Obama administration's opposition to this illustrates our point that, in general, those in power oppose accountability efforts while those out of power tend to support them (until they are in power).