Bozeman News

Here Comes the Sun

National Sunshine Week and the Public’s Right to Know

By David Nolt, 3-19-08

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant.” -Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

As members of the Fourth Estate, New West would be remiss not to plug National Sunshine Week, observed March 16-22. The project is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to celebrate and inform the public about open government and freedom of information. Sunshine Week started, appropriately enough, in the Sunshine State after legislators attempted, unsuccessfully, to create exemptions to Florida public records law.

How are your state’s Sunshine laws? The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Citizen Access Project provides extensive freedom of information ratings and state comparisons across hundreds of issues. Disclaimer: The project only takes data from what is on states’ books concerning freedom of information. Public and government perceptions and interpretations may vary.

In the Big Sky state, the Montana Constitution explicitly states, “No person shall be deprived of the right to examine documents or to observe the deliberations of all public bodies or agencies of state government and its subdivisions, except in cases in which the demand of individual privacy clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.” The guiding statement emphasizes the public’s right to know, but the 2003 Montana Freedom of Information Project revealed many barriers to public information access still remain.

Citizen Access Project rankings are on a scale of 1-7, or “Dark” to “Sunny” for the meteorologically inclined. Here are numbers for a few Western states on key issues, as defined by the project. Gleaning the results, Western states generally hold their own with the rest of the country, but even where individual states show more transparency in some areas, they lack it in others.

Constitutional Access Provisions

Montana’s Constitutional public right-to-know guarantee rates the state higher in the West and average across the country.

CO: 2.09
ID: 2.22
MT: 3.61
UT: 2.15
WY: 1.96

Requesting Records (For the law relating to Requesting Records, refer to the project’s individual categories for Redaction, Copying, Inspection, Requester Requirements, Agency Responsibilities, Requests, Agency Response.) Exact numbers were not available.

CO: Partly Cloudy
ID: Partly Cloudy
MT: Cloudy
UT: Partly Cloudy
WY: Cloudy

Elections Records, Overall

Montana trumps all other 49 states when it comes to transparency in general elections records.

CO: 3.84
MT: 5.13
ID: 3.26
UT: 3.66
WY: 4.26

Civil Penalties on Government (Non-criminal penalties imposed on violator of public records law)

CO: 1.98
ID: 4.25
MT: 1.98
UT: 4.75
WY: 1.98

Civil Penalties, Requestor (Non-criminal penalties imposed on records requestor for a frivolous or harassing action)

CO: 3.16
ID: 4.33
MT: 3.83
UT: 3.91
WY: 3.74

Attorneys’ Fees, Requestors (Issues involving the attorneys’ fees for those who are suing to obtain public records)

CO: 4.00
ID: 3.24
MT: 4.16
UT: 3.32
WY: 1.89

Court Costs for Requestors

CO: 4.17
ID: 3.41
MT: 4.50
UT: 3.83
WY: 2.40

Redaction, Public Records

Kudos go to Idaho and Utah, while Colorado, Montana and Wyoming hold their black markers and cards closer to their chests.

CO: 1.44
ID: 4.82
MT: 1.44
UT: 3.85
WY: 1.44

Other Freedom of Information Links

Freedom of Information Act

National Freedom of Information Coalition

The First Amendment Center

Montana Freedom of Information Project

Montana Freedom of Information Hotline

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