In September 2022, then U.S. Senate candidate and Missouri state attorney general Eric Schmitt filed a state public records request for emails of a University of Missouri journalism professor related to his work advising the student newspaper. Although this incident was novel, it offers a potential playbook for public figures to weaponize state public records laws against student news organizations and the faculty who advise them. This paper argues for an exemption to state public records laws covering the journalistic communication of faculty advisers to student journalists at state universities. It considers several sources of law that could inform such an exemption before offering a potential model language for an exemption.
This study explored journalists’ perceptions of threats related to their work, fatigue related to requesting public records, expectations of timely fulfillment of records requests, and willingness to use public records in their reporting. Overall, journalists reported high levels of concern about threats to press freedom, legal threats related to their news content, and losing access to public records. Journalists who perceived higher levels of difficulty requesting public records tended to perceive lower likelihood that records requests would be fulfilled in a timely manner. Journalists with higher levels of fatigue related to requesting public records were less likely to use public records in their reporting. Fortunately, most journalists who had requested public records indicated requesting public records is worth their time.
In 2020, the New York legislature repealed New York Civil Rights Law Section 50-a, which shielded law enforcement disciplinary records from release via New York’s Freedom of Information Law. In 2025, two New York Courts of Appeals upheld the public’s right to access the disciplinary records, creating a potentially pathbreaking change in access to law enforcement records. The study considers the implications of the repeal and decisions on law enforcement transparency.
Inquiries about animal research represent a small but disputatious segment of freedom of information requests at the state and federal levels. Since the 1985 requirement that each research facility has an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), these panels have faced a steady stream of freedom of information requests. Seemingly obscure, the committees get considerable attention due to public concern about the treatment of animals in research studies. This paper examines court opinions dealing with requests for information from IACUCs. A key tension is that scientists and committee members prefer withholding information out of fear for their safety due to the sometimes violent tactics of animal rights groups.
This article examines an Ohio law aimed at resolving public-record access disputes quickly and at low cost. The 2016 statute allows those denied a record to pay $25 and file a one-page form to start an expedited case in the state’s Court of Claims, saving time and attorney fees. While other states offer attorney general or ombuds help in records disputes, none has a process that initiates a court action this way. Using data from the nearly 900 cases, a survey, and interviews with stakeholders, the article assesses how well the process works and if other states should emulate it. Comparisons, as well, are made with systems in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Editor David Cuillier highlights the importance of alternative enforcement mechanisms of public record laws so average people don't have to hire a lawyer and go to court to guarantee their right to know. Research published in this issue that focuses on Ohio's court of claims system is compared to mechanisms in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Cuillier urges all states (and the U.S. federal government) to consider incorporating independent oversight agencies to help enforce the laws, just as more than 50 nations have implemented.
This article examines how journalists in rural communities of Kentucky utilize open records and meetings laws while navigating close-knit, interpersonal connections in order to report on critical issues of public interest. Drawing from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the article finds that these laws allow the respondents to uncover government corruption and are essential to the mundane tasks of daily reporting. In contrast with a decline in FOIA requests by journalists nationally, local journalists working under challenging conditions in rural communities recognize the value of their state-level open records and meetings laws. The article concludes that it is imperative for the public to defend their state’s open records and meetings laws, particularly amid the onslaught of challenges to press and speech freedom across the country.
This article examined the plausible interventions of civil society in the FOI policy localization in Nigeria’s subnational and local governments. It is based on desk review, guided interviews, and stakeholders’ engagement. Watt’s federalism was reviewed to contextualize the discussion of FOI policy applicability in Nigeria, and Meijer’s transparency was operationalized to derive eight sets of questions and codes for analysis. From the findings, factors of idea movement help understand subnational peculiarities in policy localization. The article classifies civil society as ‘policy participants’ in academia, ethnic-based groups, labor centers, media, and NGOs, offering unique but overlapping inputs. Strategies include research, advocacy, campaigns, storytelling, protests, and volunteering. Alliances and networks enable openness in subnational governments.
The Journal of Civic Information team collected research ideas from practitioners at the first Sunshine Fest, held March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C., in recognition of the 20th anniversary of national Sunshine Week. About 160 experts from a variety of geographies and disciplines converged to discuss the most pressing issues in freedom of information. Research ideas included technological solutions, more state-level research, tracking of exemptions, examining the nature of requests, studying the dynamics of populism and transparency, enforcement, and studying agency rules regarding public records dissemination.
The Documenters Network was founded to make local public meeting information more accessible to community residents. Public meetings and their documentation are understudied. With fewer local journalists and declining journalistic coverage, these records now serve as storytelling tools for residents engaged with local government processes. This study compares official minutes taken by city staff with notes taken by Documenters at 46 public meetings. Using a combination of content analysis approaches, it examines these records based on accessibility, transparency, and the provision of additional context. This study addresses gaps in research on meeting documentation, evaluates how effectively each type fills civic information gaps created by the decline of local journalism, and highlights their importance in fostering transparency and participation.
Associate Editor Ahmed Alrawi discusses the advancement of AI-powered state surveillance in smart cities and how they have sparked concerns. Decentralized systems may present a solution. Dispersed dat and systems make it more difficult for government security agencies and urban administrators to conduct widespread surveillance but also empower individuals with greater control over their personal data.
Many state and local governments have begun to rely heavily on Smart City technologies, including license plate readers, gun-shot detection equipment, wastewater monitoring tools, and more. But the public often has little oversight with regard to their purchase, installation, and use. We analyze public records laws and relevant case law to examine whether the laws provide access to records about, and produced by, Smart City technologies. Even in states that broadly define “public record,” officials regularly rely on exemptions—often citing law enforcement or privacy concerns—to deny access. Further, many Smart City technologies have not been addressed by the legislatures and courts, but legislation and litigation involving two technologies (police body-worn cameras and police dash cameras) have advanced—offering some optimism.
The Journal of Civic Information celebrates five years of publishing research about the ability for people to get the information they need to self govern. This editor's note lays out the genesis of the journal, its mission, and top-read articles.
Given the proliferation of electronic records in government agencies, public records are an increasingly valuable source of information for research, advocacy, and public oversight. Using an information management framework, this article reviews practices by four organizations in the US (National Security Archive, University of Washington Center for Human Rights, MuckRock, and Reclaim the Records) to request, manage, and use the information obtained through public access requests. Through case studies, findings pinpoint key obstacles and opportunities to strengthen research and advocacy using Freedom of Information laws, and how users of public records can shift from individual one-time pursuits of records to broader, ongoing and collaborative initiatives.
The Journal of Civic Information welcomes two new associate editors, Dr. A.Jay Wagner of Marquette University and Dr. Ahmed Alrawi of University of Virginia, who will help the journal increase submissions, quality, and outreach.
This article analyzes American regulations, legislation, and executive orders that address the matter of critical infrastructure, primarily in communications. The article conducts policy-oriented research into the relevant government documents, plus theoretical research on the framing of geopolitical disputes and the transparency of regulatory actions. This article argues that existing definitions of critical infrastructure are indistinct and tautological, while they perennially get mixed up with national security. The article concludes that a distinct policy definition requires concrete proposals rather than relying on myriad government agencies to announce vague and unworkable definitions or the term.
This article examines government officials using privately owned communication portals to exchange messages, asserting that documents do not become public records if government agencies avoid taking possession of them. This may be defensible under the literal wording of some state public records statutes, but it is inconsistent with the remedial good-government purposes of those laws. The use of private “cloud portals” raises tricky practical problems, since a private custodian may be beyond the reach of state FOI statutes or records-retention requirements. For this reason, the author recommends, states should consider banning public employees from conducting business on platforms that are not built for retaining and producing their communications.
Online crime maps, which plot law enforcement crime data, promise to promote civic engagement and increase government transparency. This study reviewed the websites of the 250 largest U.S. cities and found 65% host or link to a crime map, and that 116 police departments entered into agreements with crime mapping companies that provide the companies preferred or exclusive access to local crime data, curtailing public access and use. This study examines the legal tactics used by commercial mapping companies to maintain information control, explores recent examples of legal battles over the data, and proposes solutions, including targeted public record law amendments, parallel access, and a generalized right of access.
More and more government agencies are making up agreements, resolutions, and makeshift policies that hide public information, contrary to state and federal public record laws. Courts should put a stop to this practice, firmly and consistently.
This article argues that the American judiciary should recognize a constitutional right of access to government information, or more forcefully a “right to know”, for purposes of achieving the self-government that was envisioned by the Founding Fathers. This in turn will subject political leaders to the “consent of the governed” that was also envisioned by the nation’s early theorists. While no such right is stated explicitly in the Constitution, a right to know is implied by Congressional investigative responsibilities that are delineated in the Constitution, particularly in Article II; the idea is also supported by numerous Supreme Court precedents on the rights of citizens to access information on government activities, either directly by request or indirectly via the press, which itself has important privileges and responsibilities granted by the First Amendment. A constitutional right to know has also been theorized by several influential First Amendment scholars. This article’s thesis builds upon the consent of the governed ideal advanced by philosopher John Locke, whose influence on the Founding Fathers is well documented. The consent of the governed requires access to information, thus leading to the informed consent that must be acknowledged by political leaders who operate under the oversight of the public. Furthermore, this article argues that informed consent can encourage informed dissent, or the ability of citizens to criticize unsatisfactory leaders and to call for change in the press and at the ballot box. In more precise terms, information leads to thought, which leads to the speech and expression that is protected by the First Amendment, which then leads to informed dissent, and finally to political action. This process, fueled by obtainable government-held information, enables the self-government that is at the heart of the American Constitution.
