Transparency News 4/8/14

For over 15 years, the Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library has been scanning maps from all over the world including those of the Mid-Atlantic United States from 16th to 19th centuries and even topographic maps of Austro-Hungarian empire ranging from 1877 and 1914. Most notably, the NYPL has scanned more than 10,300 maps from property, zoning, and topographic atlases of New York City dating from 1852 to 1922. There's also a "diverse collection of more than 1,000 maps of New York City, its boroughs and neighborhoods, dating from 1660 to 1922, which detail transportation, vice, real estate development, urban renewal, industrial development and pollution, political geography among many, many other things," NYPL posted in late March on its blog.
CNET News

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) reversed the dismissal of a challenge to the Ventura County, Calif. Superior Court’s document policy, which withheld from public inspection records filed with the court until administrators there completed processing – a procedure that could take several days, and, in some instances, much longer. In early 2012, Courthouse News Services filed the action in federal court, claiming that the Ventura County Superior Court’s policy violated its First Amendment right of public access and its right to gather and disseminate news. A lower court had previously dismissed CNS's suit on a rule that “permit[s] the federal courts to decline to decide matters … which implicate sensitive state interests.”
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

State Sen. Hubert Houser left the Iowa Statehouse a month ago, and he doesn't want to come back. Houser, 71, a farmer from Carson in southwest Iowa, says his health is fine. He isn't angry at Democrats or his fellow Republicans, either. It's just that after 42 years of public service, including the past 22 years in the House and Senate, he's had enough. In addition, as a minority Senate caucus member, Houser says his vote isn't needed to pass any legislation, and he isn't playing any significant role in writing any bills this session.
Governing

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA) is a great tool. It helps citizens and news organizations get real information to use and report on. As I cover various FOIA activities and articles, I find myself wondering about the ethics involved for the public body to try hiding documents about the public business, and otherwise actively try to circumvent the law. Some of the documentation requested can be sensitive, and there are opportunities to view such information at times when the custodian wishes to redact the portions not allowed to be divulged. If a situation is so serious that it needs to be kept secret, how can we reconcile that with an ethical professional life? What ethical responsibility is there for record custodians to not release documents and other information, given that the subject matter is either salacious or derogatory? Is the idea that the public, who rightfully should know the business of their government, can’t handle the sensitivity of certain issues?
Mark Brooks, The Next Shoe

A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated another campaign-finance restriction on First Amendment grounds in McCutcheon v. FEC. Eight of the nine justices evaluated the case under the Court’s seminal decision, Buckley v. Valeo (1976).   Justice Clarence Thomas, however, once again reiterated his strongly held views that Buckley was wrongly decided. For the sixth time, Thomas wrote an opinion calling into question the viability of the Buckley decision, which drew a distinction between political contributions and political spending. Thomas views Buckley as unnecessarily restricting the right of the people and others to make political contributions.
David Hudson, First Amendment Center