News & Opinion

California open government roundup: Chula Vista stumbles in providing easy public record access

Chula Vista officials have not been archiving public records requested under the California Public Records Act. The result is that if anyone wants to revisit a record, they must submit a new request. (The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 4, 2024, by Jeff McDonald) In a victor for transparency, the California Legislature released sexual harassment records promised four years ago. Although state officials claimed there had been no “substantiated” complaints since 2020, the newly released records

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FAC Requests John Ortega, Orange School Board President, Retract Statement About Recall Effort

Today, FAC sent the following letter to John Ortega, President of the Orange Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education, asking him to retract a comment he made at the January 18 school board meeting. At that meeting, Ortega, referring to certain flyers related to a recall campaign of two school board members that contained “school photos,” said, “That is completely inappropriate spreading misinformation about OUSD sponsoring such a thing,” and stated, “We are looking

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Newspaper to appeal order to not publish court documents on Nike sex discrimination lawsuit

The Oregonian lost a battle as a federal judge ordered them not to publish documents it obtained legally on a sex discrimination suit against Nike. An attorney representing the plaintiffs against Nike sent the documents to a reporter then wanted them back. The attorney iled a motion for the return of the documents. (Yahoo!Finance, January 29, 2024, by The Associated Press) The Oregonian plans to appeal the judge’s order contending that it is a violation

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Legal scholars urge Supreme Court to block Trump from ballot

UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky with other prominent scholars filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Trump’s acts during the January 6 insurrection disqualify him from running for office. They contend that his speech calling for violating the law is not protected under the First Amendment. (San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 2024, by Bob Egelko) Conservative legal scholar and former judge J. Michael Luttig has been in the forefront in

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