FOIA precedents and the CPRA
Q: Can a federal FOIA case serve as a precedent for a CA Public Records Act case?
A: Generally speaking, decisions by federal courts other than the U.S. Supreme Court are not binding on state courts. California courts have observed, however, that the California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) “was modeled upon the federal Freedom of Information Act [“FOIA”], and has a common purpose” and that “federal ‘legislative history and judicial construction of the FOIA’ may be used in construing California’s Act.” City of San Jose v. Superior Court, 74 Cal.App. 4th 1008, 1016 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999), quoting Times Mirror Co. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal. 3d 1325, 1338 (1991). Because the FOIA and the CPRA are not identical, though, not all interpretations of FOIA would be relevant to interpreting the CPRA. A FOIA analysis could also be very different from an analysis of a similar issue under the CPRA because of the different federal and state laws that might be implicated in the application of the FOIA and the CPRA.