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Showing 891 - 900 of 1238 results

  • 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

  • Latest News

    Blog

    Digital strip-search: Case of lost iPhone prototype shows the danger of using search warrant to seize journalists’ information

    […] be crippling, essentially bringing one's work to a complete halt for the duration of a police examination in which government agents have access, not only to business records, but also to one's most private files (medical and financial records, communications with family members, etc.). But for journalists, particularly investigative journalists, the loss would be […]

    April 30, 2010

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Can I be charged for postage for CPRA requested documents?

    Unfortunately, I could not find any case law regarding whether an agency can charge for postage under the California Public Records Act ("PRA"). When responding to a PRA request, an agency can charge for the "direct costs of duplication, or a statutory fee if applicable." Govt. Code section 6253(b). "Direct costs of duplication" has been […]

    September 13, 2016

  • Asked and Answered

    Newsgathering

    How do I protect rape victims in my reporting?

    […] on the other end of a defamation lawsuit. As explained below, there are various degrees of protection afforded to reporting on, e.g., court documents or other official records, as well as statements that simply report the truth, but you will want to be careful in how you report any such information so you can […]

    February 11, 2017

  • Latest News

    Cases

    AP, Bloomberg, CNET, Wired.com, LA Times, CNPA join FAC motion in lost-iPhone case

    FAC--The First Amendment Coalition and major news media have requested the California Court presiding over the Gizmodo/missing iPhone matter to unseal judicial records relating to the warrant issued for the search of an online journalist's home and the seizure of his computer, hard drives and other digital files. The motion to unseal the warrant […]

    May 6, 2010

  • Asked and Answered

    Brown Act

    COVID-19 Prohibition On Public Gatherings Prevented Me From Speaking to the Public

    […] for a public meeting" during the COVID-19 crisis, so long as the public is provided some means of observing and commenting upon the proceedings "telephonically or otherwise electronically." The Executive Order did not provide local legislative bodies themselves the authority to block entry to a building in which a meeting was taking place, but […]

    January 20, 2021

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Accessing public payrolls

    I recently filed a public records request for teacher payroll information with the Los Angeles Unified School District. My request was denied on the grounds that it represented an unreasonable invasion of privacy. It's my understanding that public employee payroll documents should not be exempt through the "privacy" clause. A fellow student working with […]

    June 14, 2009

  • Asked and Answered

    First Amendment

    City Denies Critics Access To Information?

    […] was very concerned about the Dallas Morning News article from May 19, 2010: "JUDGE ORDERS CITY CRITIC TO AVOID OFFICIALS."  Did the ruling affect any person requesting records? Because elected officials are the stewards of our tax money, I feel their actions should be available to the public. This situation truly concerns me and […]

    May 29, 2010

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA Police Records

    Despite New Laws, My Request for Police Body Camera Footage Has Been Repeatedly Denied

    […] to SB 1421.  Notably, the FAC prevailed in its lawsuit against the CA Attorney General, which it filed after his office denied a request for police misconduct records.  You can read more about that lawsuit here: https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2019/05/fac-prevails-in-effort-to-force-ca-attorney-general-to-disclose-police-misconduct-files/ Short of initiating a similar lawsuit against the city and police departments, you can write back to them […]

    February 8, 2021

  • Asked and Answered

    CPRA

    Can a city assert a copyright claim to a public document?

    […] the legislature (County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court (CFAC) (2009) 170 Cal. app.4th 1301. Is that true? Please note a group that requested a copy of the video from the city under the CA Public Records Act received a copy, but was ordered not to distribute it on YouTube or by any other means.

    June 8, 2012