Transparency News 3/31/14

When a quorum of Williamsburg-James City School Board members showed up at Tuesday's James City supervisors' meeting, some in attendance questioned whether the board members violated an open meetings law by having a majority together without issuing a public notice. The answer is no, according to Leo Rogers, attorney for James City County, and Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Virginia's Freedom of Information Act does allow for two or more members of a public board to attend the same public event or meeting, so long as that event was not called for the purpose of discussing or transacting that entity's business.
Virginia Gazette

Take a look at Virginia's congressional delegation and you might think it's the same old reliably Republican state that backed 10 GOP presidential candidates in a row, starting with Richard Nixon in 1968. But that 8-3 Republican advantage in the delegation is misleading. Democrats have won every recent statewide election. President Barack Obama broke the GOP winning streak and carried Virginia in 2008 and 2012. Both of the state's U.S. senators are Democrats. And last fall, Democrats swept the top three statewide offices – governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general – for the first time in 24 years. "Virginia really stands alone when we talk about how rapidly this state has moved from a reliably red state to a purple state," said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. "The Democrats are clearly in the ascendancy and have rapidly moved from underdog status to really the dominant party in statewide elections. That's not reflected in the state House of Delegates and Congress because of gerrymandering."
Register & Bee

The calls for accountability have begun with the release of a state inspector general’s report on what went wrong with Virginia’s mental health system in its handling of Austin C. “Gus” Deeds, the 24-year-old son of Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath. One call came from the man who led the investigation and then resigned from the inspector general’s office three weeks before the report was released on Thursday.
Times-Dispatch

In the six-person race to fill Anthony Burfoot's Ward 3 seat on the City Council, the candidate with the most to lose may be Mayor Paul Fraim. Burfoot, an ally of the mayor, was elected treasurer in November. His departure from the council puts Fraim's majority voting bloc on the line.
Virginian-Pilot

The Southern Poverty Law Center, as expected, has filed an objection to the subpoena served earlier this month by the attorney representing Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), as part of the effort by a group of Sterling residents to oust Delgaudio from office. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Delgaudio's private business, Public Advocate of the United States, a hate group because of its its anti-LGBT actions and statements. In explaining his subpoena, attorney Charles King said in a statement earlier this month, "Almost every article written about Supervisor Delgaudio mentions the designation of Public Advocate as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center…"The Sterling petitioners (in a petition to remove Delgaudio from office) cited Public Advocate's hate group status as one basis for removing him from office. In today's America, calling somebody a member of a hate group is serious."
Leesburg Today

National Stories

At their most recent monthly meeting, the five members of the Greece Town Board took their seats, gaveled to order and moved quickly through the regular opening agenda: Roll Call. (Check.) Pledge of Allegiance. (Check.) Moment of Prayer. (Check.) Leaders of this town of 96,000 outside Rochester say they have no plans to shake up the longtime routine unless, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court orders them to. A ruling could come any day now on whether the town violated the Constitution with its opening prayers because nearly every one in an 11-year span was overtly Christian. This month’s was no exception — a Baptist minister delivering a head-bowed, eyes-closed, 40-second invocation. “Lord, we ask that the decisions that are made will be made with a lot of thought and with a lot of wisdom from you,” said the Rev. Mike Metzger of First Bible Baptist Church. “In Jesus’ name, I pray.” Greece’s expeditious, matter-of-fact Christian prayer, with no mention of those who believe differently, is at the heart of a case with potentially wide-ranging impact: Governmental bodies from Congress and state legislatures to school boards often pause for prayer before getting down to business.
Daily Progress

A Carroll County, Md., commissioner said the heck with what a U.S. District judge said and went ahead and opened this week’s meeting with a prayer that invoked the name of Jesus Christ. Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier said she’d go to jail for the right to say Jesus during a meeting prayer — just two days after a judge, on the heels of an atheist group’s pressing, issued a preliminary injunction that barred any type of sectarian prayer during government gatherings, The Blaze reported. Ms. Frazier didn’t care. She said, prior to opening with a prayer that invoked Jesus more than once, that: “I’m willing to go to jail for it. I believe this is a fundamental of America, and if we cease to believe that our rights come from God, we cease to be America. We’ve been told to be careful. But we’re going to be careful all the way to communism if we don’t start standing up and saying ‘no.’ “
Washington Times

American Water Operations and Maintenance Inc. filed suit in New Jersey federal court on Fridayseeking to block a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a Vinson & Elkins LLP attorney and contending that the request would reveal the utility’s trade secrets and proprietary pricing information. American Water’s suit seeks injunctive relief from the Defense Logistics Agency Energy in an attempt to block it from revealing on March 30 confidential pricing information related to ongoing operational costs, repair and replacement costs and capital expenditures.
Law 360

A proposal backed by President Obama to constrain the National Security Agency’s systematic collection of Americans’ telephone data drew a cautious welcome on Sunday from a key congressional intelligence leader, but she offered a few significant caveats. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, welcomed several aspects of the plan, which was developed by the Justice Department and intelligence officials and endorsed on Tuesday by the president during his recent European trip, but which still requires congressional approval.
New York Times

The Louisiana Department of Corrections does not plan to appeal a U.S. Court decision this week that compels it to reveal to inmates on death row the content and maker of drugs used in lethal injections, a prisons official said on Friday. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Thursday was one in a series in favor of inmates who have sought delays for their execution while they seek information about the contents of lethal injection cocktails and clarity on who would be supplying the drugs. The decisions are likely to delay executions across the country as lawyers for inmates in other states launch similar efforts on their behalf in states looking to develop new means of lethal injection after supplies of drugs they have once used have run dry.
Reuters

A Pennsylvania journalist will not have to testify about his jailhouse interview with so-called Craigslist murder suspect Miranda Barbour, in which she reportedly claimed to be a serial killer. The subpoena seeking the newspaper reporter's testimony was withdrawn on Friday by Northumberland County District Attorney Anthony Rosini, who said he was able to get the information from another witness. Barbour, 19, was not present at Friday's hearing in Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas in central Pennsylvania but was expected to appear on April 2 for an evidentiary hearing in the murder case.
Reuters

The cost of Iowa's secret settlements with former state workers climbed to $516,245 late last week, and the controversy facing Gov. Terry Branstad's administration doesn't show any sign of fading. The Des Moines Register first revealed the secret payments March 16. The Register's investigation now shows more about what the state attempted to keep confidential, details that have ignited a quest from state lawmakers for answers.
Des Moines Register
 

Editorials/Columns

The governor had no idea. It was all someone else’s fault. But he takes full responsibility and you can be sure it won’t happen again. That’s Chris Christie’s story, and the governor of New Jersey is sticking to it. It’s also Terry McAuliffe’s story. The governor of Virginia is hoping the public buys it, too. Christie’s office recently released the results of an internal investigation into Bridgegate that – surprise – exonerated Christie for any role in causing a major traffic jam as an act of political revenge. McAuliffe says he had no idea his newly formed political action committee was going to sell private meetings with him to donors willing to stroke six-figure checks. The Macker is shocked – shocked! – to discover that gambling with his office’s reputation is going on here.
Times-Dispatch

CHRISTIAN Parks wants to preach. But by doing so in a courtyard of Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Parks apparently violated the school's policy on free speech and demonstration. That policy is the one used by the whole Virginia Community College System, 23 campuses, and it's the VCCS that Parks is now suing, alleging his right to free speech was violated when campus police ordered him to stop evangelizing. Parks' federal lawsuit argues that the VCCS policy violates his free speech and right to religious expression because it requires that demonstrations be held in certain areas of a college's property, and it limits those demonstrations to organizations that are recognized by a college.
Free Lance Star

The Obama administration has used the Freedom of Information Act to increase rather than decrease government secrecy. In 2013, it increased use of exemptions to bar release of requested files by 22% over the previous year, according an analysis by the Associated Press. The government fully denied or redacted large portions of files in 36% of the 704,394 requests submitted. This growing disregard for openness is especially disappointing from a president who, on his first full day in office, announced he would have the most transparent administration in history. It is evident not only in the administration's handling of FOIA requests, but also in the recent CIA dispute with the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee over the committee's report on the government's use of torture in the aftermath of 9/11 and in the scope and nature of mass surveillance by the NSA, known because of files made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The need to reverse this trend is evident in the critical role the FOIA has played in revealing secrets that, once public, led to major reforms. The revelation of COINTELPRO, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's secret illegal operations, is an example of the fundamental importance of the FOIA.
Betty Medsger, USA Today

Never say die. That must be the motto of politicians, religious leaders and school leaders who keep pushing for state-sponsored prayers in public schools more than 50 years after the Supreme Court struck down the practice as a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The latest prayer restoration scheme comes from an Alabama state representative who proposed a law last week that would require teachers to read a prayer from the Congressional Record every day to students in Alabama classrooms. Nice try, but still unconstitutional: Whatever the source of the prayers, the high court has made it clear time and again that school officials may not impose devotional practices on a captive audience of impressionable young people in public schools.
Charles Haynes, First Amendment Center