New Jersey Supreme Court to decide if email log is covered by open records law
The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether police have to supply an open-government activist with logs of emails under the state’s public records law.
The court agreed on Friday to hear the appeal by the activist, John Paff, after an appeals court ruled that the email log didn’t have to be provided because it didn’t already exist in that form, report Philly.com and Philly Voice.
Galloway sought the email log from the Galloway Township police chief in 2013.
The appeals court held in April that the state Open Public Records Act requires the release of records, but not a new government record that doesn’t exist at the time of the request. “While a computer may be able to create an email log quickly, it is still creating a new government record,” the appeals court said.
The appeals court added that it may be possible to quickly create the email log, but redacting confidential information could require substantial effort.
“If the Supreme Court doesn’t reverse this,” Paff told Philly.com in an interview, “it restricts the public to a paper world while the government will be operating in an electronic world.” Paff is chair of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project.
