Open records policies often mean a costly choice
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Dana Holladay-Hollifield has worked as a nurse in Alabama for years, but never was her pay as low as it was at Huntsville Hospital.
She wondered what executives at the not-for-profit facility were making, so she filed a public records request to find out. The hospital is governed by a public board, she said, and therefore subject to the state’s open records law.
Many months and roadblocks later, Holladay-Hollifield faced a decision: File a costly lawsuit to get the information, or give up.
“This is supposed to be easy to access,” she said. “I’ve got three kids; I’m taking care of my mother-in-law and my husband. I mean, I don’t have a spare $10,000.”
Holladay-Hollifield’s predicament represents what experts say is a fundamental breakdown of American democracy: In most states, the most effective — and often only — option for residents to resolve open government disputes is to sue.
“Unfortunately, in the United States, almost everywhere, you have to go to court to enforce these laws. And that’s just wrong,” said David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. “If the system requires the average person to hire an attorney to make democracy work, then it’s really broken.”
A nationwide review of procedures by the Associated Press and CNHI News, timed to Sunshine Week, found that fewer than a third of states have offices that can resolve residents’ complaints by forcing agencies to turn over documents or comply with open meetings requirements.
In most states, residents have just one meaningful option when they believe an agency is illegally withholding public information: to wage a legal battle. This system has a chilling effect, discouraging private citizens from finding out about everything from police investigations to how elected officials make decisions and spend taxpayer money.
Alabama is one of these states.
Holladay-Hollifield began seeking records from Huntsville Hospital, which is overseen by the Health Care Authority of the City of Huntsville, a public corporation, in early 2023. She petitioned its governing board, where an attorney repeatedly rebuffed her request. She then contacted numerous local public ofthere ficials, but none could help.
Finally she consulted a lawyer, who told her a lawsuit would likely cost thousands of dollars.
Joe Campbell, general counsel for the Huntsville Hospital system, said the facility’s administration and board have tried to provide Holladay-Hollifield with appropriate responses without “compromising their fiduciary obligations to protect the hospital.”
“We have notified her in writing that we contend executive salaries are confidential and not subject to an open record request,” Campbell said in an email.
However, J. Evans Bailey, a media law attorney in Montgomery, says significant Alabama Supreme Court rulings have held that all health care authorities in the state are subject to its public records law.
“If you are subject to the open records law, and you have a document that shows what the salaries are of various executives or higher level people in your government entity, that should be an open record,” Bailey said.
The AP and CNHI’s 50-state review uncovered a patchwork of systems for resolving open government disputes. Some states, such as Arizona and Indiana, have offices that can review residents’ complaints but can’t compel agencies to comply with their findings.
Others give their attorneys general authority to issue opinions or take matters to court, though experts say they rarely pursue litigation or prosecution.
“That’s one of the real challenges with any of these laws is that even when they have enforcement tools built in, civil liability or criminal liability, that they are so rarely enforced,” said Chip Stewart, a media law professor at Texas Christian University.
Beyond varying vastly from state to state, systems for resolving open government disputes can be complicated and daunting to navigate. They also can carry hefty fees for those seeking information.
Thomas Mattson, a videographer from Salem, routinely requests body camera footage from local police agencies. The requests, he said, are often denied under investigatory exemptions.
In Massachusetts, the Supervisor of Records with the Secretary of the Commonwealth can issue decisions in records disputes, though the attorney general and the courts are the ultimate enforcers in such cases.
Mattson has appealed dozens of denials to the supervisor of records and said a letter from the office is often enough to get compliance.
But, he is commonly met with fees, sometimes hundreds of dollars.
“That’s how they deter people from seeking these records,” Mattson said. “This is what I do, but the average person would just give up out of frustration.”
Biden’s speech showed his uneasy approach to abortion
WASHINGTON — Reproductive freedom took center stage during President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday, but abortion-rights advocates had mixed reactions, raising concerns about the president trying to capitalize on what will be a central campaign issue while avoiding using the word “abortion.”
Abortion rights have proved to be a potent issue driving voters to the polls and boosting Democrats since the US Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure nearly two years ago. The issue could be pivotal in the presidential race and congressional contests this year.
During his speech, Biden deviated from his prepared remarks, skipping over the word “abortion” and instead using the phrases “reproductive freedom” or “freedom to choose.”
The word was used once in his prepared remarks, when he introduced Kate Cox, first lady Jill Biden’s State of the Union guest and a Texas woman who was forced to flee the state for an abortion after finding out her fetus had a fatal condition. The text had Biden saying, “Because Texas law banned abortion.” Instead, he said, “Because Texas law banned her ability to act.”
“By not saying the word ‘abortion,’ it implies that it’s taboo or something to be ashamed of,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio. “It’s stigmatizing and harmful. The president should do better.”
Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which manages abortion clinics in Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Virginia, said was an “uproar” across the organization as staff members texted their reactions to each other.
The pushback over how he addressed the issue is the latest example of Biden’s fraught history with the topic. Many in the abortion-rights movement have long viewed him as an imperfect messenger.
Biden initially opposed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, saying it went too far. He also opposed federal funding for abortions and supported restrictions on abortions later in pregnancy.
The Biden campaign’s strategy is to let the president be who he is — an 81-year-old Catholic man whose views on the issue have evolved and who still doesn’t use the word abortion much. His aides also want to highlight his evolution on the issue and how he still grapples with what can be an uncomfortable topic but believes firmly in the freedom of choice.
Britt used old example to attack Biden policies
The Republican senator who gave the party’s response to President Biden’s State of the Union address used a harrowing account of a young woman’s sexual abuse to attack his border policies, but the rapes did not happen in the United States or during the Biden administration.
First-term Senator Katie Britt of Alabama in the GOP response criticized current immigration policies, describing how she had met a woman at the Mexico border who told of being raped thousands of times in a sex trafficking operation run by cartels, starting at age 12.
The victim has previously spoken publicly about the abuse happening in her home country of Mexico from 2004 to 2008. Yet, Britt used the account to chastise Biden’s action on the border.
“We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United
States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it,” Britt said in the Thursday night speech televised from her home in Alabama. “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace.”
Britt spokesperson Sean Ross confirmed that the senator was speaking about the account of a young Mexican woman who told of being repeatedly raped in Mexico, when Republican George W. Bush was president.
Ross said people are still victims of “disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels.”