Ken Starr, the former judge, solicitor general and independent counsel, wrote in today’s New York Times that sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court should be televised.

“The benefits of increased access and transparency are many,” wrote Starr (who coincidentally is a player in an Oct. 4 Daily Report story on how legal threats slowed football conference expansion). “Democracy’s first principles strongly support the people’s right to know how their government works. This would seem to be underscored by this court’s stubborn insistence on freedom of communication in a democratic society.”

We can take cameras to the state appeals courts and, often, the state’s trial courts. But the federal courts are closed to cameras. What do you think of Starr’s arguments?

“I think it’s a bad move. Period.”

That was former Georgia Attorney General Michael J. Bowers’ reaction Tuesday when asked by the Daily Report for his thoughts about a provision in the proposed legislative rewrite of the state’s open government laws that would prohibit litigants from using the Open Records Act to obtain records for use in civil or administrative litigation. (The legislation is House Bill 397, which was drafted and backed by current Attorney General Sam Olens and his staff. The bill came up for a public hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.)

Bowers, now a partner at Balch & Bingham, had success using the Open Records Act in his reverse discrimination suit on behalf of fired librarians against the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library in 2002, in which his clients won millions.

“The government has every advantage imaginable and to preclude the use of the Open Records law in litigation is bad business,” Bowers said. “And these are public documents. They belong to the people to begin with. It’s not rocket science.”

 A provision in a bill that would revise the state’s open government laws has drawn the ire of Georgia trial lawyers.

Part of House Bill 397, which was written primarily by the state attorney general’s office to clarify the open government laws, would prohibit litigants from making requests of government agencies under the state’s Open Records Act for records intended for use in any civil or administrative litigation.

Backers say the intent is to prevent attorneys from circumventing the discovery process and abusing the Open Records Act.

William T. Clark, chief lobbyist for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, told the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that the provision goes against the principle of open government. Read more »

Two state ethics commissioners are set to pare down the list of applicants for the panel’s executive secretary position and conduct preliminary interviews next week.

Ethics commission member Kevin D. Abernethy estimated between 30 and40 people have applied for the agency director position since the opening was announced in June. He and fellow commissioner Joshua B. Belinfante will question candidates and recommend finalists after the five-member commission’s regular meeting at headquarters on Aug. 5. Read more »

Two state senators from Atlanta are requesting the Georgia Attorney General investigate whether Tuesday’s private meeting between the governor, Atlanta mayor and Atlanta public school board was in violation of open government statutes.

The request comes as Attorney General Sam Olens and his office investigate alleged public meetings violations in Savannah. Read more »

The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press has joined in an amicus brief filed this week before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Third U.S. Circuit case, FCC v. AT&T, that the committee says could undermine the federal Freedom of Information Act. AT&T initiated the suit against the Federal Communications Commission to stop the release of FCC records documenting an investigation into whether AT&T had overbilled the federal government, according to a RCFP news release. The 3^rd Circuit ruled last fall that corporate privacy is included in a public records exemption that allows law enforcement agencies to withhold information that could threaten personal privacy.  The FOIA exemption permits law enforcement agencies to withhold information that could violate an individual’s privacy but whether it can be extended to corporations has not yet been addressed by the high court.

Read the RCFP news release here