Gov. Landry Enacts Law that Lets Officials Ignore Public Records Requests
House Bill 768, removes all personal liability from the records custodian of a government agency who unreasonably withholds records or fails to respond to a public records request.
Gov. Jeff Landry has signed into law a bill that allows government officials to ignore the state’s public records law without consequence.
House Bill 768, sponsored by Rep. Les Farnum, R-Sulphur, removes all personal liability from the records custodian of a government agency who unreasonably withholds records or fails to respond to a public records request.
The statute that was repealed previously allowed courts to consider custodian liability when a requester sued the government agency that withheld the records. The custodian could have been forced to pay a fine of $100 per day and the attorney fees of the person who was denied access to the records.
The new law does away with all of that. However, First Amendment attorney Scott Sternberg, who represents the Louisiana Press Association, said it is unlikely to make things worse than they already are because courts almost never enforce the custodian liability statute.
Farnum’s bill was one of many passed this session, most spearheaded by the governor, to weaken or repeal state public records laws.
The Louisiana Public Records Law is a common tool journalists, watchdog groups and engaged citizens use to investigate government corruption, waste and other misdeeds.
Louisiana lawmakers have gradually chipped away at the state’s public records law, adopting hundreds of changes to revoke public access to a long list of government documents since it was enacted in 1940.
Article written by Wes Muller who traces his journalism roots to 1997 when, at age 13, he built a hyper-local news website for his New Orleans neighborhood. Since then, he has freelanced for the Times-Picayune and worked on staff at WAFB/CBS, the Sun Herald and the Enterprise-Journal. He also taught English as an adjunct instructor at Baton Rouge Community College. Muller is a New Orleans native, Jesuit High School alumnus, University of New Orleans alumnus and a U.S. Army veteran and former paratrooper. He lives in Southeast Louisiana with his two sons and wife.
Story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator which is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. ESG University republishes select stories under a shared content agreement and Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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