Secrecy Tracker

Louisiana recently changed its open meetings law to say that “viva voce” voting – votes that are spoken aloud – are no longer required to conduct public business. Under the new requirement, a vote “that is displayed and recorded using electronic machines” will count as viva voce. According to the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, the law…

Several states debated bills this legislative session that would have required public bodies to proactively publish their meeting minutes online. A Massachusetts bill died in committee that would have required minutes to be posted within 10 business days of approval. New York, like Louisiana, already has this rule on the books, but would have…

Earlier this year, Tennessee considered a bill that would have made death penalty information more public. The bill died in committee, but circulated around the topic of drugs used for executions and whether their makers and ingredients are confidential under the state’s public records law. “The identity of a supplier…

Nearly a dozen states have recently passed or discussed laws that would allow them to take requesters to court if they deem their requests disruptive, vexatious, malicious or overly broad. Tennessee allows agencies to seek an injunction if they think someone is submitting a request meant to disrupt government operations.…

Library checkout histories are private in basically all states, but New Hampshire recently debated going farther: should a patron’s status, whether they have an active library card or not, be exempted from public record? That was the proposal put forth by state representative Lisa Mazur, who was elected to the…

The Virginia state legislature recently commended the Virginia Coalition for Open Government in a joint resolution. The legislators praised the organization’s 30 years of advocacy, which has included online publications, help hotlines for requesters, fellowships in policymaking and other resources. The resolution specifically praised VCOG’s guidance for government agencies on how…

A bill making its way through the Louisiana legislature would exempt student athletes’ compensation from public disclosure. Under state public records law, general information about university athletics financials are public. But this bill would exempt details such as payments for a specific student or sport. Negotiations would be private as…

New Jersey is debating changing its public records law to prevent exploitative police body cam footage from being posted online. “It has come to the sponsor’s attention that bad actors have been taking advantage of the State’s open public records law in order to exploit on social media young women…

Pennsylvania is debating a bill that would bar public officials from signing non-disclosure agreements relating to the development of a data center. Louisiana lawmakers recently made the news for doing the same – a move that the Louisiana Illuminator said was a new tactic. The Pennsylvania bill would amend the…

A group of Maryland inspectors general are asking to be granted special access to public records that would normally be exempt from disclosure. In February, the state attorney general’s office advised records custodians to treat the inspectors the same as any other requester. “Fundamental to our work is having unrestricted…

A proposed bill in Illinois would exempt from disclosure junk mail that the government might receive. HB0021, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Didech, would update the statute’s definition of a “public record” to exclude “junk mail,” defined as “any unsolicited commercial mail sent to a public body and not responded to…

Police in the middle of official duties would have been exempted from accepting public records requests, if a proposed amendment had gone through to Florida’s public records law. The bill passed two committees but died in the judiciary committee last month. House Bill 627 would have allowed law enforcement officers…