Your Right to Know

Guides help public navigate openness laws

Published by kjpasson on Wed, 08/07/2024 - 7:57am

You ask for a record from your local government, you get it. You want to attend a meeting of a public body, you can walk right in.

Much of the time, it’s that simple. Wisconsin’s open records law entitles citizens to most records regarding the affairs of government, and its open meetings law creates a default presumption that all governmental meetings are open.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Redaction costs threaten police video access

Published by admin on Tue, 07/02/2024 - 6:16pm

The bill moved with lightning speed. It was introduced last December, passed the state Senate in January and the Assembly in February, and was signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers in March. Wisconsin Act 253 allows police and corrections officials to charge some requesters of video and audio recordings for the cost of redaction — that is, blurring out certain information.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Officials must bear burden of proof in records cases

Published by admin on Fri, 06/07/2024 - 11:36am

Imagine I sue a school district for refusing to provide copies of records. Do I have to prove I’m entitled to them, or does the district have to prove it can withhold them?

That’s a question the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, along with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to clarify, in a friend-of-the-court amicus brief filed on May 22.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Rights clash in records dispute

Published by admin on Thu, 05/09/2024 - 5:01pm

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon hear a case involving records related to the voting rights of mentally incompetent people. No matter which side wins, the public has in some ways already lost. That’s because while the case pits the public’s right to scrutinize voter eligibility against the rights of voters to protect their own private health information, elected officials have missed a chance to solve the underlying problem.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Shine more light on open investigations

Published by admin on Fri, 04/05/2024 - 12:42pm

A horrific scene played out in February in an apartment complex in Middleton, a Madison suburb.

A woman and her two young children had died. The tight-knit community mourned for this family as its members asked, how could this happen?

Several days after the shootings, Middleton police released a statement saying the mother had killed her two children and shot the children’s father before taking her own life. The crime raised questions about mental health issues and whether there had been warning signs in the woman’s troubled life.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Don’t charge records requesters for redactions

Published by admin on Mon, 02/05/2024 - 3:17pm

You’ve already paid for them. They’re yours, but if you want to see the public records that show what your government is doing, some state lawmakers want you to pay again — this time, for redactions.

That’s right. They want you to pay more to get less.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Protect the rights of student journalists

Published by admin on Sat, 12/09/2023 - 1:27pm

About a year ago, Simon Mehring came home from a high school journalism conference with an idea.

Mehring, now a junior at Stoughton High School, had learned about an Illinois law that protects student media from censorship. He also found out that Wisconsin doesn’t have such a law.

So, armed with model legislation from the Student Press Law Center, he raised the issue with state legislators, in conversations that lasted through the school year and into the summer.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Reopening court discussions was a good idea

Published by admin on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 3:25pm

On Oct. 9, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held a lively, 35-minute discussion on whether to allow the deletion of certain eviction records from Wisconsin’s online court records system. I’ll get to that topic in a moment; what’s remarkable is that we were able to witness this discussion at all.

In 2012, a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to close its administrative conferences. These are conferences where the court considers changes to rules that affect the court system, procedures used in civil and criminal matters, and ethics rules for attorneys and judges.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Protect the press against bogus lawsuits

Published by admin on Thu, 10/19/2023 - 8:07am

In mid-August, in my role as a press advocate, I received a call from the owner of a small, vibrant, online community newspaper who was worried about publishing a story that reflected poorly on a local business. The paper had checked and rechecked its facts and gave the business repeated opportunities to comment. But still, the newspaper owner was afraid of being sued.

YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW: Strike a balance on student privacy

Published by admin on Sun, 08/06/2023 - 7:42pm

In recent years, public schools in Wisconsin and across the country have come under intense scrutiny. At issue are some of the most politically engaging, high-stakes issues of our time — what we teach children about race, gender and identity; how we police the line between free speech and anti-discrimination law; and the role of parents in shaping their childrens’ world view.

These are political questions, but they are also highly personal, reaching into the most intimate details of children’s and families’ lives.