The state Supreme Court acknowledged that universal truth last week, ruling that New Jersey's Open Public Records Acts - OPRA - extends to information stored electronically, as in e-mails or databases.
Mushrooms grow well in the shade. Democracy, not so well.
The state Supreme Court acknowledged that universal truth last week, ruling that New Jersey's Open Public Records Acts - OPRA - extends to information stored electronically, as in e-mails or databases.
The decision comes as good news for journalists, researchers and everyday citizens seeking access to electronic data from the public bodies with which they do business.
The justices unanimously reversed a lower-court ruling that had made it harder to obtain such information - information that by all rights belongs to you, members of the public.
Advocates for open government, such as the New Jersey Press Association and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, joined voices in the case.
Together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, they argued that "information extracted from a computer database - whether called a list a log or a response to a request - is not new information or a new record, but a government record, as defined by OPRA."
Government can't hide information in electronic databases
Thomas Cafferty, counsel to the New Jersey Press Association, celebrated the ruling, terming it particularly significant since more and more records are kept electronically.
Since 2002, OPRA has mandated that, with certain exceptions, government records must be readily accessible for inspection, copying or examination. This works not only to the benefit of journalists, but also to that of private citizens who need to know what their elected and appointed officials are up to.
We've seen as recently as this week how government secrecy can be both toxic and dangerous.
Working behind closed doors, far from public oversight, 13 GOP senators stealthily turned out a health-care bill which threatens to throw millions of Americans into the ranks of the uninsured.
Contrary to what Donald Trump and his followers famously believe, members of the media are not the enemy. Rather, they are the watchdogs, tasked with keeping the government accountable to the people they serve.
The relationship at times may be adversarial, and it should be. There's a good reason the crafters of the Bill of Rights included freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
As Justice Barry Albin wrote in last week's welcome decision: "An informed citizenry is essential to a well-functioning democracy."
With their nod to the country's founders, the justices have presented the people with one more tool to keep that democracy flourishing.
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