Interesting People mailing list archives
Being sued for seeking government records -- not a molehill
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:16:37 -0500
I strongly agree djf ------ Forwarded Message From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:07:16 -0500 To: <dave () farber net>, <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Being sued for seeking government records -- not a molehill But often citizens send in information requests without being certain that they are ready to follow up by hiring a lawyer and bringing the case to court if the government agency refuses -- in fact, often the bringing of a lawsuit is the last thing they have on their minds. Allowing a declaratory judgment action in this context gives the agency the ability to up the ante whenever an information request is submitted, and chills the exercise to the right to seek the public records in the first place. It may also allow the agency to select the court in which suit is brought, perhaps a court that is less convenient to the citizen. There is good reason to allow commercial actors who are rivals for the same trademark, disputants over ownership of a copyright, or parties to a multi-million dollar contract, to decide to seek declaratory relief instead of waiting to get sued while committing large sums of money to some form of commercial activity. But exactly what is the harm to the government agency if it has to wait to see whether it is sued over denial of a particular records request? Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- Being sued for seeking government records -- not a molehill David Farber (Mar 28)