Arkansas FOI Act Celebrates 50th Anniversary

This past week, exactly one- half century ago, on Valentine’s Day, the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act was first passed and signed into law.

Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, the state’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction, who struggled with a Democratic controlled Legislature, inked the bill into law.

That was a long time ago, both historically and politically.

Or so it seems in these days of the GOP governor and GOP control of both the House and the state Senate.

The FOI Law was and is generally considered one of the strongest and best models for open government by investigative reporters and others who research public records for various purposes. The intent of the FOIA is to keep government business and government records open and accessible to the people of Arkansas.

The Arkansas FOIA has been called “the people’s law” in that it provides the citizens of Arkansas open access to the conduct of the public’s business at every level of government, as well as ready access to public records on file with a host of custodians for those records in county courthouses, city halls, public schools, and other public facilities across the state.

And, as a former full-time newspaper reporter for over 35 years, that law was useful in making sure the public’s business, was made public.

The use of the FOIA has made better public policy than any political party since 1976. Many valuable members of the Arkansas Press during the 1970s who helped draft and pass this law are now gone.

Two leading legislators state Sen. Ben Allen, a Little Rock attorney, and state Rep. Leon Holsted, a North Little Rock druggist, both legislative leaders at the time, were the lead sponsors on the original bill.

They were joined with a rag-tag group of other senators and house members, many of whom were cajoled by their local weekly and daily newspaper editors out in the state to support this law.

Many of those quiet legislators supported the act, against the proverbial “power machine” that did NOT want this new-fangled law placed on the public’s business.

Shortly after Gov. Rockefeller signed the bill into law, the FOIA was tested in court in a lawsuit that went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court, where the justices ruled unanimously in favor of preserving the Arkansas FOIA.

In the high court case, a beloved, fair and often quoted justice, George Rose Smith, wrote:

“It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner. We have no hesitation in asserting our conviction that the Freedom of Information Act was passed wholly in the public interest and is to be liberally interpreted to the end that it’s praiseworthy purposes may be achieved.”

When Gov. Rockefeller left office in 1971 he pointed to the passage of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act as one of the crowning achievements of his administration.

And it was and remains so even today.

But the FOIA has been amended and what many may say has been eroded over the years. It has been amended over 18 times, for such reasons to specifically protect such things as grand jury minutes, adoption records, and the identity of law enforcement officers currently working undercover, along with other protections.

Even today there are bills in almost every legislative session to “water down” or “restrict” some part of the public’s right to know.

The original act is brief, but its plain language leaves little room for interpretation. When interpretation has been needed, the courts of Arkansas have generally favored openness of government and government records.

Also released this month by the University of Arkansas Press is the Sixth Edition of “The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act,” by trio of authors, John J. Watkins, Richard J. Peltz-Steele and Robert Steinbuch.

Well-worn copies of older editions can be found in newsrooms, attorney’s offices and in the hands of public policy wonks.

Those copies used for door stops can be found in offices of most every lazy politician; mortar bound city board, non- progressive county quorum court and those hidebound state agencies that don’t like the pesky press looking in on their actions.

Happy Anniversary to the Arkansas FOIA.

May it have another 50-year run — even in this new GOP led legislature with the GOP governor.