In City of Gilroy v. Superior Court, the Court of Appeal held that trial courts lack the authority to hold public agencies accountable for violations of the California Public Records Act beyond ordering the disclosure of specific records. According to this decision, a court could not mandate remedies if an agency failed to conduct an adequate search for records or unlawfully destroyed records.
On December 20, 2023, FAC led a coalition of organizations in sending an amicus letter to the California Supreme Court urging it to review that decision.
The letter states: “An agency cannot disclose what it does not locate. The failure to produce public records due to an inadequate search is tantamount to an outright refusal to disclose[…]It is all too easy for an agency to evade its disclosure obligations by making only a cursory search. If courts lack power to grant relief against such evasive tactics, the CPRA could become a dead letter. As a result, the power to award relief for failure to conduct an adequate search is essential to fulfilling the CPRA’s fundamental purpose to ‘safeguard the accountability of government to the public.’”
The California Supreme Court granted review in the case on February 21, 2024.
On September 26, 2024, FAC filed an amicus brief urging reversal of the Gilroy decision, arguing that the California Public Records Act must be properly construed to empower trial courts to hold agencies accountable for all violations of the Act and prevent public agencies from evading compliance with the Act by destroying records while requests are pending. The brief was joined by Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, The McClatchy Company LLC, California Newspapers Partnership, Californians Aware, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Legal Documents:
- Brief of Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner (9/25/2024)
- Letter in Support of Petition for Review (12/20/2023)