Free Republic

Why has Gov. Tom Wolf’s Office of General Counsel paid nearly $400,000 of taxpayer money to several private law firms? It’s a simple question, and there may be a simple and reasonable answer. But the administration’s failure to answer it raises questions about what causes and activities the governor has used state resources to pursue, and why he didn’t use the state’s attorneys to do it. Secrecy always raises suspicions, even if they are entirely unwarranted. In terms of legal bills for complex institutional litigation, $367,500 spread across six firms is a pittance. The Office of General Counsel employs hundreds...

It is no secret that American higher education is in crisis due to a lack of affordability, growing irrelevance, and the ideological conformity that prevails in today’s classrooms. Less well-known is the pervasive foreign influence, particularly from authoritarian countries, on today’s college campuses. China has its Confucius Institutes (CIs) to project soft power, while Middle East Studies Centers (MESCs) can also facilitate foreign influence. Little from these programs supports American values of natural rights or freedom of thought. In fact, these programs can pose actual national security threats. The National Association of Scholars’ (NAS) work in documenting foreign influence has...

Should we be shocked that a so-called journalist is criticizing a legal process used by people to understand what their own governments are doing? Absolutely not.Brandy Zadrozny, a senior reporter at NBC News, is displeased with how American citizens have mobilized against critical race theory. Many are using open-records laws to obtain evidence of what public entities are doing with their tax dollars.To Zadrozny, people who seek to hold government accountable via the Freedom of Information Act—passed by Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966—are participating in an “onerous” process. Well, is she in favor of governments keeping public information...

There is a bill before Congress called the "Open Courts Act", that is designed to make it easier for members of the public to have access to court documents at the Federal District and Appellate level. The bill is HR-8235, and is co-sponsored by Hank Johnson and Doug Collins. I would strongly support this as it is something we sorely need. Today, when a decision is made in federal courts at the district and appellate level, if you want to read the decision itself or transcript of the oral arguments, you have to have an account with the PACER system....

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Gov. Andy Beshear missed a golden opportunity to demonstrate that he’s personally walking the COVID-19 walk as well as talking the talk concerning the need for Kentuckians to hunker down at home and the commonwealth to shut down its economy with the exception of what he deems “essential” services. Instead of responding immediately to an open-records request by the Bluegrass Institute related to determining whether the staff at Beshear’s own home abides by the same suffocating COVID-19 protocols he’s demanding from his fellow Kentuckians, the administration took 12 days to finally provide the information. Not only...

MADISON — As National Sunshine Week gets underway, darkness continues to shroud Wisconsin state government. In his first year-plus in office, Gov. Tony Evers and his administration have closed a lot of doors to open government, evidenced by the transparency and First Amendment lawsuits pending.In December, Fox6 News, represented by the Wisconsin Transparency Project, filed a lawsuit against the governor.You’ll recall that reporter Amanda St. Hilaire had filed a basic request seeking all emails between the governor and his chief of staff over a four-week period. Evers’ legal counsel rejected the request, insisting it was too broad and burdensome.St. Hilaire pared...

Well, Gov. Rick Scott’s legal action against the shoddy ballot counting antics in two of the most liberal counties in the state seems to have clinched its first win: A Florida judge ruled that Broward County, the largest Democratic county in the state, was in violation of state law, and that Brenda Snipes, the county’s elections supervisor, was in violation of open records act. Ms. Snipes was not giving regular updates on how many outstanding ballots were left. She was just dumping vote counts in the late hours, which has chipped away at Scott’s lead, but the secrecy and the...

Faced with a public records request from Mississippi Today for the state's contract with EdBuild, a legislative committee voted Tuesday to adopt a new policy mandating that all contracts it approves be confidential. The House Management Committee, which approves contracts entered into by the House of Representatives, voted 7-3 to pass the policy, which states "All contracts entered into by the House Management Committee shall be confidential and shall not be released to any person or entity, except as specifically directed by the House Management Committee only when the committee deems necessary for the execution of the contract." The action...

WAUKESHA, Wis. – It’s a battle for public disclosure, and the state Government Accountability Board is fighting to keep thousands of documents related to its role in the political John Doe investigation in the dark. Attorneys for conservative plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the GAB on Wednesday argued for their motion to open the records to public inspection. Their motion asks Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. to lift a protective order that keeps the information under seal. “This is a matter of great importance about government misconduct,” said Eddie Greim, an attorney for long-time political activist Eric O’Keefe and...

In a sudden reversal amid a stinging backlash, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and GOP legislative leaders said they agreed Saturday to completely remove a part of the proposed state budget that would severely roll back open records laws. The sudden furor had become a serious distraction for Walker as he prepares to formally announce his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination on July 13. He told reporters before an Independence Day parade in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa on Saturday morning that he planned to discuss the matter with legislative leaders after the weekend, the Journal Sentinel reported.

The head of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records said he plans on being at work Friday morning despite having his security pass taken away and being fired by Gov. Tom Wolf. Erik Arneson, who was appointed as executive director by Gov. Tom Corbett, was met by an attorney from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development on Thursday. Arneson said his security pass, office key and state-provided vehicle was taken from him. But that's not going to stop him from being in his office Friday morning. "[Wolf] doesn't have the authority to do it," Arneson said. "It's an...

AUSTIN — Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is suing to keep secret the details about his investigation of indicted former House majority leader Tom DeLay. The Houston Chronicle filed a request under Texas' open records law in March seeking vouchers, hotel and airfare receipts, budget documents, memos and e-mails describing the expenses for the DeLay inquiry and related investigations. DeLay, indicted last year on conspiracy and money laundering charges connected to the financing of 2002 state legislative races, resigned from Congress on June 9. Earle, in his attempt to keep details of his investigation out of public view, appealed...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Only days after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 59 to increase the public's ability to inspect government records, a media-backed group is asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to release all his appointment calendars, schedules and meeting logs since taking office last Nov. 17. The California First Amendment Coalition, a group of journalists and civic activists formed in 1988, mailed the request to Schwarzenegger on Wednesday, the day Proposition 59 took effect in the state's constitution. The move represents an opening salvo among Proposition 59 supporters, who are urging aggressive requests statewide for government records from the state, schools,...

As Myfanwy Walker drove across town two years ago to meet her biological father for the first time, she had to pull into a service station, fearing she was going to be sick with anxiety. Through a very determined search, Ms Walker had tracked down Michael Linden, the man who donated the sperm in 1977 that eventually helped create her and her younger brother. Since the shock of being told at 20 how she had been conceived, she felt she needed to know more about him to have a more complete sense of her identity. "I remember walking in the...