Transparency News 5/23/13

Times-Dispatch: A Marine Corps veteran is arguing in federal court that basic constitutional guarantees were violated when Chesterfield County police, federal agents and mental health workers combined to have him involuntarily committed last summer. Brandon J. Raub, now 27, argues in a 14-page complaint filed Wednesday by lawyers working with the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute that his “baseless incarceration” violated his right to free speech, right to due process, and freedom from illegal searches and seizure. Raub apparently drew the attention of federal agents through various Facebook postings in which he criticized the government, lost freedoms, the Federal Reserve and the nature of the United States’ military presence overseas.

Washington Post: A Richmond prosecutor is investigating whether Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell violated state gift and disclosure laws — a probe that was initiated by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II. Cuccinelli (R) confirmed Wednesday that he asked Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring to conduct a review of McDonnell’s annual economic disclosure forms last November.

Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau: Under pressure, Cuccinelli this week instructed his office to stop using those footnotes, though he never backed off on the idea that his office is above FOIA law. And that has open-government advocates worried. “When he came into office, Cuccinelli talked a lot about transparency,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “I think it would be a positive step if he made that confirmation (that he’s subject to FOIA), but I don’t know what [he is] willing to do.” To critics like liberal PAC leader Mike Signer, this is just the latest example of a Cuccinelli double standard on transparency. “I believe he made a political decision and not a legal decision at the end of the day to get rid of it,” Signer said.

National Stories

A bill brokered by Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is aimed at balancing public-document requirements of the Freedom of Information Act with the desire to keep private grisly photos from the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Connecticut Post

The chief judge of Washington's federal district court said he expects the court will have to review hundreds of arrest and search warrant dockets after learning this week that the clerk's office failed to publicly file an unsealed search warrant in a high-profile government leaks case.
Blog of LegalTimes

Six years ago, the Justice Department fought a civil liberties group's effort to obtain documents directly from a secretive Washington court that hears government surveillance requests. The American Civil Liberties Union, the government said, was trying to make an "end run" around federal public records laws. Then another group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, went to court to try to get a copy of an opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The advocacy group sued the Justice Department last year under the Freedom of Information Act. In that case, the government said prosecutors are not permitted, by the surveillance court's own rules, to disclose the requested opinion. The duel positions left spinning heads—at least those of the challengers. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was filing papers in the surveillance court asking it to release the requested opinion—an 86-page ruling in which the court found surveillance activity violated the law. Alternatively, the advocacy group asked the court for a determination that its rules don't bar the release of the requested material.
Blog of LegalTimes

The Republican National Committee on Wednesday sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the Internal Revenue Service demanding the agency turn over any documents related to the targeting of Tea Party groups. RNC chairman Reince Priebus said the move was triggered by Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the controversy, announcing she will invoke her Fifth Amendment rights at Wednesday's House Oversight Committee hearing about the scandal.
The Hill

In the weeks before a mass shooting at a packed movie theater that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, James E. Holmes received six packages from an online ammunition dealer, according to newly unsealed court documents. The shipments were among other details scattered through search warrants and affidavits that were unsealed here on Wednesday. Much of the information had already emerged in earlier court hearings.
New York Times

Newly uncovered court documents reveal the Justice Department seized records of several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation — even listing a number that, according to one source, matches the home phone number of a reporter's parents.  The seizure was ordered in addition to a court-approved search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen's personal emails. In the affidavit seeking that warrant, an FBI agent called Rosen a likely criminal "co-conspirator," citing a wartime law called the Espionage Act.
Fox News

When is a prayer not a prayer? When it does not mention the Almighty, according to one Arizona legislator. And he lashed out at a colleague for doing just that. The dust-up stems from the decision by Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Phoenix, a self-professed atheist, to use his turn Tuesday offering the traditional prayer at the beginning of the House session. He started out by urging colleagues "not to bow your heads.''
East Valley Tribune

Editorials/Columns

Daily Progress: Certain exemptions are lawful under the FOIA. Mr. Cuccinelli’s office could have provided precise reasons why the requests for Williams/Star Scientific information were exempt from the act. That is the accepted protocol for withholding information. Instead, the AG’s office wholly exempted itself from the law and gave voters and taxpayers to understand that they are lucky the office deigns to voluntarily answer as many information requests as it does.

Times-Dispatch: Government agencies carry out the policy directives of the party in power, and that is to be expected. It is, in fact, one reason we hold elections. But blatantly discriminating against one side or the other by misusing neutral laws such as the tax code and the Freedom of Information Actfalls far outside the zone of the acceptable. It is an egregious abuse of power. It also is starting to look like a hallmark of this administration.

Times-Dispatch: News that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli appointed Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring to investigate Gov. Bob McDonnell’s financial disclosure statements is a gift to Virginia’s Democrats. It is the right thing to do, but it will please the Democrats on several counts. Although an investigation could clear not only the air but also McDonnell’s reputation, situations such as these seldom redound to their subject’s benefit. They might not prove disabling, but they often leave stains. Reports of gifts from Jonnie Williams Sr. to the McDonnell family have left many heads shaking. The crucial question asks whether McDonnell disclosed all the information he should have.

News & Advance: Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford County, accepted a trip to Taiwan in 2012, combined with three trips to American Legislative Exchange Council meetings between 2010 and 2012 easily made her the busiest traveler among the Lynchburg area’s delegation to the legislature. Unfortunately, Byron neglected to report her travel to Taiwan. The delegate said she took the trip sponsored by Taiwan’s cultural office and didn’t report it because Virginia taxpayers didn’t pay for it. That’s not the total point of the personal financial disclosure statements required of all state lawmakers concerning items worth more than $50. The point of the law — in addition to disclosing whether taxpayers paid for the event — is for the public to know who is paying for the trip, dinner, conference and other gifts being handed out by the special interests.