After a push to alter Wisconsin’s Public Records Law (Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31-19.39), we’re now secure with the original law intact.
Below one will find a recording of Wisconsin A.G. Brad Schimel’s Open Government Summit, held earlier this week at the Concourse in Madison.
J.B. Hollen, Schimel’s immediate predecessor, started strongly in favor of the Public Records Law but was less supportive in his second term. A.G. Schimel’s approach is better for the public, although it’s disadvantageous for public officials seeking to conceal information from the very residents to whom they are legally obligated.
(It’s also helpful that support for the law is widespread, and not confined to the party in opposition. Two of the key opponents of gutting the law have been the MacIver Institute, a conservative think tank, and Rick Esenberg’s Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative-leaning public interest firm.)
But one has this problem, that has grown worse over these last few years: too many officials, in cities, towns, and universities, have decided that they can reply to a public records request however they’d like. Replies like this are dares: will you go to court over this? Alternatively, will you accept what we’ve supplied, however inadequate in reply it so obviously is?
Some denials may be over fair questions of interpretation; that’s not what I’m describing. Many denials are a test of one’s citizenship, of one’s rights in a free, well-ordered society: can someone successfully compel others to accept less than their rights require, consigning them to an inferior position in disregard of the law?
There’s no way to know how a requester will respond to an insufficient reply until the need arises, of course. It’s helpful, though, to state plainly a path one will follow. Having stated as much, officials will not be able to say they’ve been blindsided.
This summit was long, I know, and time is precious. Still, there’s much in here, useful for thinking about government, on one’s own, rather than relying on officials’ superficial, self-serving declarations.