All Access

A Pulaski County (Arkansas) circuit judge on Friday temporarily blocked the release of emails between an Arkansas Supreme Court justice and a former court employee. Mark Friedman, senior editor with Arkansas Business, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request last month to the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Office of Professional Conduct seeking all communications after January 2023 between former OPC director Lisa Ballard and several individuals, including Associate Justice Courtney Rae Hudson. Ballard was one of three employees who left the OPC in short succession earlier this year. Ballard’s personnel file, which was obtained by the Advocate in May through a Freedom of Information Act request, did not include a letter of resignation or list a reason for termination. In a complaint filed Friday, Hudson argued she is the custodian of the emails requested by Friedman under the FOIA’s definition and has administrative control over the requested records, not the AOC.

A 2021 law intended to improve accessibility to government documents for individuals with hearing and vision impairments has had unintended consequences — it prompted some agencies to completely remove public records from websites altogether in order to avoid non-compliance with the legislation.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law an anti-transparency and anti-accountability bill that will compound existing problems with New York’s Freedom of Information Law, further delaying the release of important public records. By doing so, Hochul ignored a memo of opposition from 10 open-government and free speech organizations, including Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). The bill requires the government to inform employees (possibly including former employees) when their disciplinary records are requested. Don’t be fooled by the bill’s proponents – it has nothing to do with personal privacy and everything to do with government secrecy.

When it’s time to take a hard look at our public officials and decide which ones to re-elect – or reject – we need information. A major source of that information is the government itself. Access to public records and meetings is essential for us to know the facts and speak out about how government is run, during election season or any time. Among the tools at our disposal are the Texas Public Information Act, the Texas Open Meetings Act and the federal Freedom of Information Act along with transparency provisions in other Texas laws and the state constitution. As strong as these tools are, we must be vigilant about keeping them sharp.

News stories sometimes inspire my Freedom of Information Act requests. One of my recent requests was in response to a story by the Wall Street Journal that detailed a report the Treasury Department sent to Congress about Hamas and cryptocurrency. Late last week, Treasury responded with some pretty insightful records. Plus, on the fiat money front, I obtained documents from Treasury’s internal watchdog about three separate probes in 2022 involving US Mint coins. I’ve got good news and bad news. I’ll start with the former. Treasury released the letter, written by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in response to my FOIA request. The two-page letter dated March 12, sent to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, adds some context to the Journal’s reporting. And it gives insight into what prompted Treasury to share the report with lawmakers in the first place. Now, the bad news. Treasury won’t release the report that allegedly says, according to the Journal, that Treasury is investigating $165 million in crypto transactions directed to Hamas.