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Asked and Answered

CPRA

911 transcripts

As a general rule, any paper and electronic documents collected, owned, or maintained by a state or local agency is a public record for the purposes of the California Public Records Act, Government Code section 6250 et seq., and is available for public inspection and copying unless one of the Act's exemptions applies. If […]

June 14, 2009
Latest News

Blog Cases

Big victory in CA Supreme Court case on public access to government data

In a major victory for open government and data access, the California Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Orange County cannot restrict access to its electronic mapping data--a so-called "basemap." The Court decided unanimously that the county basemap is a public record under the Public Records Act, which means that it must be made available […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
July 10, 2013
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

A City Council’s COVID-19 Ordinance Allows Only email or Pre-Recorded Telephonic Comments

[…] local legislative body or state body that holds a meeting via teleconferencing and allows members of the public to observe and address the meeting telephonically or otherwise electronically. . . shall have satisfied any requirement that the body allow members of the public to attend the meeting and offer public comment. Such a body […]

January 20, 2021
Pages

Terms of Service

[…] by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by you, the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest. A statement by you, made under penalty of […]

July 8, 2024
Handbooks

FOIA: Sample Request Letter

For more information on how to make a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and where to send your request. You might also find additional help submitting a FOIA request at the website of FAC’S FOIA focused, non-profit partner, MuckRock. FOIA: Your Right to Federal Records (2011) Where to send a FOIA request MuckRock
- Government Transparency and Accountability
- Public Records
September 8, 2024
Latest News

Blog

Unplug Wikileaks? Enact a Federal Shield Law Instead

[…] fingerprints of sources, rendering leaked documents untraceable. By contrast, the same documents leaked to the Washington Post, whether by means of email, "cloud"-based internet services or other electronic communications, would be vulnerable to interception and tracing. And if the documents, instead, were hand-delivered to the Post, its reporter could be subpoenaed and forced to […]
- Press Freedom
November 16, 2010
Latest News

Press Release

Joint Statement from FAC and EFF on DOJ Leaks Investigations

[…] information of public interest that was obtained unlawfully, so long as the journalists themselves broke no laws in receiving the information. However, this law has never been applied in the context of an Espionage Act prosecution. Contacts: David Snyder Executive Director First Amendment Coalition dsnyder@firstamendmentcoalition.org 415-460-5060 David Greene Civil Liberties Director Electronic Frontier Foundation davidg@eff.org
- Press Freedom
August 4, 2017
Latest News

FAC News Press Release

Announcing FAC’s 2014 Free Speech & Open Government Award Winners

[…] some of the best practices of journalism, building their database by hand when the state Department of Social Services couldn't muster the technology to make records available electronically, and providing the public with original source documents as well as CARR's facility-by-facility 10-year summaries. There were many outstanding nominees--individuals and groups--whose honorable work is deserving […]

December 2, 2014
Asked and Answered

CPRA

CPRA request won’t be fulfilled unless we show documents we’ve already received

[…] officials’ private email or text accounts, rather than accounts belonging to the government. Unfortunately, an appellate court overturned the lower court’s ruling, finding that messages sent from private electronic devices are not subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. According to the California Supreme Court's website, the case has now been fully briefed (as of […]

June 16, 2016
Asked and Answered

First Amendment

Ok for court reporter to transcribe mayor’s speech at private-sector event?

[…] "content neutral" -- i.e., administered without regard for the content at issue (in this case, the memorialization of the mayor's comments) -- restrictions such as prohibiting any electronic recording devices may be permissible. The inquiry is fairly fact specific, so it is difficult to give you a concrete answer in the abstract. That said, perhaps […]

September 14, 2016