The Supreme Court abandoned the Kneeland standard and held the TPIA only applies to private entities “sustained” by public funds – a higher threshold that shields such entities from open records requests.īills co-sponsored by Sen. For three decades, Texas relied on the so-called Kneeland test to protect the public’s ability to monitor the use of public funds by economic redevelopment commissions, among other private entities. Paxton redefined when publicly-funded private entities are subject to the TPIA. Governmental bodies have since refused to provide records over 300 times in reliance on Boeing. Paxton expanded the competitive bidding exception in the TPIA in two egregious ways – it allowed private entities to claim the exception and also allowed the exception to apply to final, awarded government contracts (not just pre-award bids, as had previously been the case). Among the most disappointing was the failure to pass bills that would have reversed two 2015 Texas Supreme Court decisions that closed public access to records that had been deemed subject to disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act for decades. Jackson Walker’s Paul Watler also advised the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas (a stalwart ally of TAB) on many of the same bills.įrustrating TAB’s ambitious legislative agenda were some disheartening defeats for the cause of open government. Jackson Walker lawyers (including me) were privileged to assist TAB in the “tackling and blocking” that brought these bad bills down. HB 809 (VanDeaver) would have prohibited a person operating a motor vehicle from using an electronic device, including a wireless communication device, to photograph or film a traffic accident-an important source of such images for journalists reporting on the accident.Īll these bills and others like them died at various stages of the lawmaking process, due in large part to the dogged opposition of TAB. HB 760 (Raney) would have created a new TPIA exception for dates of birth of living persons, depriving journalists of an effective means to differentiate between two individuals with the same or similar names to ensure their reporting is accurate. HB 1725 (Hernandez) would have created a new exception in the Texas Public Information Act for personal information contained in traffic citations. HB 2521 (Perez) would have prohibited, in certain circumstances, the release of mugshots generated by an arrest. Captioned as a bill on racial profiling, SB 1487 (West) would have made it more difficult to obtain the release of body and dash camera video of police shootings, despite the profound impact such videos have had on public attitudes towards (and reporting on) the use of deadly force by police officers in recent years. ![]() Public access to government records was also under attack. Sullivan by unconstitutionally narrowing the circumstances under which a libel plaintiff who is a government official or public figure must prove “actual malice” on the part of a journalist defendant. Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. HB 3387 (King) would have unwound over 50 years of precedent since the landmark U.S. It sought to strip newsroom staffers of the privilege against compelled testimony and forced release of unpublished work product, if a journalist had donated to a political campaign in the last five years or if the newsroom staffer worked for an owner who had done so either individually or as part of a PAC. ![]() HB 3388 (King) would have damaged the 2009 Texas reporter shield law statute that TAB drove to passage. The loss of this critical statutory safeguard would have been a major setback to newsrooms. ![]() Failure to do so results in dismissal and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs to the defendant. The CPA allows newsrooms to extricate themselves from frivolous libel lawsuits at the initial phase of proceedings by requiring the plaintiff to prove by “clear and specific evidence” facts supporting his or her claim. Perhaps the worst among them was HB 3811 (Lozano), which would have gutted the Citizen Participation Act (CPA), the Texas anti-SLAPP statute (strategic lawsuit against public participation), that TAB helped pass in 2011. The 2017 Session saw a wide-ranging assault on hard-won TAB victories from past sessions. ![]() The Texas Association of Broadcasters (a Jackson Walker client) and an alliance of other organizations promoting the public’s right to know fought bravely, winning some and losing some. In a legislative session that was tough going for advocates of open government and news reporting, a tenacious defense won more victories than an aggressive offense. In football, blocking and tackling is as important as connecting on a long pass.
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