ADV3352 Final Exam Review Week 11 Chapter 9 Gathering Information Public records laws press ability to gather information where they gathered info from and how they are able to do so from the government Three Sources of Law Concerning Access to Government Information Common Law Constitutional Law First Amendment only Statutory Law State Federal laws Common Law o Strict limitations o Person requesting document must have interest in the record ex party to a litigation who needs record to represent case o Only records required to be kept by government are subject to disclosure problem many documents held by government are not required to be kept so under common law a person would not have access to such documents Constitutional Law First Amendment o Not a huge source o First Amendment says freedom of press but it does not provide support in this arena because that was not its original intent o Original intent in adopting this amendment was to provide a means for the public to confront the government NOT for press to report on government s activities o Supreme Ct has held in two cases in 1974 that press does NOT have special access to prisons beyond that of normal citizens o Supreme Ct has held that First Amendment DOES give citizens including the press the right to attend criminal trials o Keep in mind that although there is no First Amendment right to access government documents officials message President use the press a lot to get our their and will often freely give out information Statutory Law state and federal o Where the real crux of press right to gather information is o 1950s states passed statutes that guaranteed press public access to records and other information held by government FL was one of the first o Every state pretty much has some sort of public records law now known by different names ex Public Records Laws or Sunshine Laws most of the time referring to state laws o Freedom of Information Act 1966 FOIA Federal law Broadness depends on how the government interprets it depending on President Rules Only applies to federal agencies Document itself must be a record such as Environmental Protection Agency Homeland Security not congress or federal courts what constitutes a record all written or electronic documents films tapes photographs even records held by private contractors electronic records both Pres Bush senior Clinton held that electronic info should be held differently than written documents but in 1996 FOIA was amended and electronic records were treated the same Exemptions 9 exemptions to FOIA from textbook 1 National security measures 2 Housekeeping materials 3 Materials exempted by statute 4 Trade secrets 5 Working papers lawyer client privileged materials 6 Personal privacy files 7 Law enforcement records 8 Financial institution materials 9 Geological data Even though record meets both rules above nevertheless such documents are not subject to disclosure to protect citizens Gives government leeway in not giving info to press Discussed pieces of this act when discussing government withholding documents photographs during war Problems broadness of how much press is able to access depends on how fed gov wants to interpret law at any o Homeland Security Act 2002 given time Pres Bush took a very narrow view of law press was not given unfettered access to documents because Bush feared risk of threat to national security Individuals large corporations have same rights to request info if government denies request to info written explanation explaining why it was denied must be provided Had a provision that made any information that was voluntarily submitted to fed Government specifically Department of Homeland security by private people businesses was exempt from FOIA Bush signed into law provision that precluded people or press from accessing documents that were voluntarily submitted by people that talked about the critical infrastructure of particular buildings they would do this so that any kind of sensitive info about important buildings didn t fall into the wrong hands terrorists Problem people could hide all sorts of health safety problems that they had in those buildings as long as it was voluntarily submitted press would never know about health safety problems companies who own power plants bridges etc State Public Records Laws o Vary from state to state most states have statutes o FL one of first our right to public access comes from statute constitution we have a provision in our constitution that gives citizens press right to access public record gov takes right very seriously o Across states statutes generally provide that certain records of gov agencies are public and can be accessed by public media o General principles Doesn t matter why you want document or who you are As long as it falls within definition can be accessed Ex in FL gov salaries of employees is considered by anyone public record Applies to records kept by state agencies Can include administrative agency much like federal agencies that we talked about Florida Dep Of Trans etc Can apply to cities counties school boards Wouldn t apply to the legislature judicial Applies to all emails of government employees at these proceeding court agencies broad rule When teacher worked at FL Dept of Environmental Protection would get requests in pending litigation technology department would create a search term and pull out every document email that had that search term in it many emails would come up and lawyer would have to go through each email and make sure it was relevant many inappropriate emails come up that are unrelated to search term Various exemptions classified information trade secrets department preliminary papers o Florida Public Record Laws FL is one of first states to enact law Source FL constitution FL statutes Major problem once document is freely given to government document becomes a public record anyone can have access to it parties litigation are sensitive to give government document that has too much info in it companies don t want competitors to access information Example FSU and NCAA Week 12 Chapter 11 Gathering Information Free Press Fair Trial Bill of Rights Free Press First Amendment Fair Trial Sixth Amendment Criminal trials often subject of news reports the more judge limits access to trial the more freedom of press is abridged Stories that Endanger the Right to a Fair Trial Stories about confessions o Ex Jean Bene man confessed it wasn t him o Ex Timothy McVeigh
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