Editorial
Court closes open door

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

A bare majority of the Washington Supreme Court last week helped governments close the door voters forced open when they approved the Public Disclosure Act in 1972. Astoundingly, the court made two unsettling shifts in the law, ruling that attorney-client privilege trumps the public's right to government records and that officials need not comply with records requests they consider too broad.

In a righteous dissent, Justice Charles W. Johnson says the court majority ignored the act's explicit direction that it is to be "liberally construed to promote full access to public records and its exemptions are to be narrowly construed."

The court ruled on two Seattle cases — one involving the monorail and the other Sound Transit's light-rail line — issues of immense public interest. In both, city officials refused to release documents citizens had requested.

The ruling is untenable. It will devastate the ability of the public — and the press — to keep tabs on its government: the explicit purpose of the Public Disclosure Act. Government officials could cloak the most troublesome of the people's business by running documents past their attorneys. When a person asks for records, the agency can decline, saying the request is not specific enough.

The Supreme Court should reconsider the ruling, as some advocates for open government are expected to request. Failing that, the Legislature must restore the law to permit the kind of accountability intended by the people 32 years ago.