A Wisconsin appeals court ruled Thursday that the state Assembly violated the open records law when it initially rejected, then fulfilled with redactions, documents sought by The Associated Press and three other media outlets related to sexual harassment allegations against a former legislator.
Read More »Tag Archives: Open Records
Editorial: A step in the right direction for open records
Wisconsin Republicans’ move to effectively render a recent state Supreme Court ruling moot is welcome news and should be embraced across party lines.
Read More »Republicans push bill to undo open records ruling
Republican lawmakers proposed a bill Tuesday that would render a controversial Wisconsin Supreme Court decision obsolete by loosening limits on when people who sue over open records requests can recover attorney's fees.
Read More »Here’s to a more transparent 2023
As ever, 2022 was a roller coaster year for open government.
Read More »OPEN RECORDS: Outsiders can’t block records access
Wisconsin’s open-records law is most often used by requesters seeking to obtain records from a government agency. But occasionally it works in reverse, allowing someone to block the release of records to a requester.
Read More »‘A SETBACK FOR TRANSPARENCY’: Wisconsin Supreme Court reverses decades of legal precedent to weaken open-records law
The Wisconsin State Supreme Court issued a ruling earlier this month that open government advocates say deals “a body blow to the state’s traditions of open government” and encourages public agencies to work in greater secrecy.
Read More »Wisconsin court’s open records ruling decried as gutting law
The Wisconsin Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday issued a ruling limiting when people who sue over open records requests can recover attorney's fees, a decision that the court's liberals and advocates for open government decried as gutting the law.
Read More »Judge orders Wisconsin investigator not to delete records
A judge on Tuesday ordered that former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman not delete any records his office has compiled, even if they are not subject to an open-records request.
Read More »Judge says not to delete Wisconsin election probe records
For the second time in as many weeks, a judge on Wednesday ordered that records related to the Republican-ordered investigation funded by taxpayers into the 2020 election in Wisconsin not be deleted, saying she was "amazed" such an order was necessary.
Read More »Evers will turn over 10,000 pages of records to lawmaker
Gov. Tony Evers is turning over more than 10,000 pages in documents to Republican state Rep. John Nygren, and paying the lawmaker's $40,000 in legal fees, in order to settle an open-records lawsuit.
Read More »Wisconsin Senate approves procedures for police body cams
The public would have access to most police body-camera video under a bipartisan bill passed Wednesday by the state Senate.
Read More »In reversal, Gov. Evers releases day’s worth of emails
Gov. Tony Evers released a day's worth of his emails to a newspaper, after initially saying state law prohibited him from doing that.
Read More »Council takes up records request, no other proposed changes to Act 235 expected
The Judicial Council discussed on Friday the best way to respond to a request for records related to a recent overhaul of Wisconsin's rules of civil procedure.
Read More »Judicial Council mulling open-record request
The Judicial Council has received a wide-ranging open-records request from the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council concerning recent changes to the state's civil-litigation rules.
Read More »Liberal group sues Schimel over records in health lawsuit
A group is suing the state Department of Justice to obtain records related to the Affordable Care Act.
Read More »Alderwoman says open-records contempt hearing postponed
A Racine alderwoman says a judge has postponed her contempt hearing.
Read More »Justices considering how records law applies to courts (UPDATE)
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is reviewing how the state's open records law applies to the court system, sparking concern among government transparency advocates that justices may close off legal documents to the public.
Read More »Police support limiting access to bodycam video
Police from across Wisconsin supported a bill Thursday that would set state policy for when body camera video can be made public and would allow for much of the footage to be withheld.
Read More »View from around the state: Avoid temptation to seal court records
Imagine the horror of being wrongly imprisoned for a heinous crime you didn't commit. In Wisconsin, that has happened to an estimated 40 people in the past 25 years.
Read More »Aid for wrongfully convicted could make for open-records problem
A bill that would increase compensation for people wrongly convicted of crimes has open records advocates worried over what it would do to court records.
Read More »Courts should let a little sunlight in
Transparency is the core value of a democratic society. In a democratic self-government, voters have the power to select and reject those who will wield the power of government.
Read More »View from around the state: ‘Public’ records given that title for good reason
It was disheartening last week to see three state Supreme Court justices siding with secrecy over openness in an open records dispute between the New Richmond News and that city's police department.
Read More »Board backs away from open records rule changes
Wisconsin officials backed away Thursday from a move to cut back on record-keeping requirements amid a backlash by open government advocates.
Read More »DOJ says it’s responding to open records requests faster
Officials with the state Department of Justice say the agency is responding faster to open record requests.
Read More »Assembly speaker asked for open records changes (UPDATE)
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was the state lawmaker who drafted a proposal that would have gutted Wisconsin's open records law and protected legislators from having to release documents currently available, documents released to The Associated Press on Thursday show.
Read More »Health records denial highlights open records challenges
After promising not to withhold government information over "speculative or abstract fears," the Obama administration has concluded it will not publicly disclose federal records that could shed light on the security of the government's health care website because doing so could "potentially" allow hackers to break in.
Read More »BENCH BLOG: Case raises notable open records concerns
In a recent Court of Appeals’ case, domestic violence clashed with the open records law.
Read More »Wisconsin legislator settles open records lawsuit (UPDATE)
A legislator has agreed to turn over additional records from an American Legislative Exchange Conference she attended to settle a lawsuit.
Read More »Assembly OKs open records bill
The state Assembly has approved a bill that clarifies Wisconsin's open records law extends to elected officials.
Read More »High court to review limit of driver record protections
The Supreme Court has stepped into a dispute over whether lawyers can obtain personal information from driver license records to recruit clients for lawsuits, despite a federal privacy law intended to shield motor vehicle records.