Posts tagged Freedom of Information Act
Phoenix to Face AZ Supreme Court Scrutiny over Public Records Refusal
September 14, 2025 // Coming just days before Goldwater lawyers argue another important case before justices—one involving the rights to free speech and privacy—this new case, called Goldwater Institute v. Phoenix, involves the Arizona Public Records Act (the state’s version of the Freedom of Information Act). The Institute sought documents from the city concerning its labor negotiations with public sector unions—negotiations that produce contracts that often include illegal subsidies such as “release time” (which was the subject of still another case we won before the Supreme Court). But the city refused to turn over the documents, claiming the records could be kept from the public under the so-called “best interests of the state” exception—a judge-made rule that enables government entities to withhold information if they think turning over certain information would be bad for the “public interest.” There’s a lot wrong with that. For one thing, the city failed to show that disclosing the documents would actually harm the public. Instead, the city’s witnesses simply claimed that disclosing the documents “may result in” the “politicization” of negotiations between the city and the union.
Attorney: Campton Hills retaliated against cop for unionizing attempt
February 6, 2025 // DiMaggio and Walsh appeared Wednesday at a Campton Hills Fire and Police Commission hearing on whether the officer should be put on unpaid leave. “Officer DiMaggio has been on paid leave for 10 months now while the village has sought reasons to discipline him after he investigated and formed a union for the police officers,” Walsh said.
Ex-Daniel Arsham Studio Employee Alleges They Were Fired for Union Activities
July 22, 2024 // Meghan Clohessy, Arsham’s studio director for nearly a decade, insists that the fired employee was let go for violating studio policies, showing up to work late, smoking indoors, and “altercations” with other staff members. “All of this is well documented, both prior and unrelated to the unionization matter,” she said.
USPS Won’t Say Whether It Shared Americans’ Contact Information with Labor Unions
December 15, 2023 // But Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) uncovered a clause in the online form’s small print, saying USPS can disclose to labor organizations the highly personal information Americans submitted – without their consent. This information includes both where they live and how to contact them directly. USPS’s disclosure raised alarms about why USPS would potentially aggregate vast amounts of Americans’ sensitive data and give it to labor unions. Since then, it appears USPS has added this labor unions language to the fine print for purchases both through USPS.com and in brick-and-mortar stores. It even added the language to its Change of Address form.
HHS Appears To Forget To Redact Email Calling For Expanded COVID-19 Mandates For Students
September 13, 2023 // “It’s concerning … [if] the CDC was even seriously considering imposing COVID vaccine mandates on students nationwide,” Nelsen said. “But if they weren’t seriously considering it, then they shouldn’t have redacted or attempted to redact disclosure of the contents of that email.” A CDC spokesperson told the DCNF that Lubar “obviously was not referring to vaccines for children” but was instead referencing the testing requirement. “At the time, the vaccine was not authorized or recommended for kids under 12 years of age,” the spokesperson said. “That recommendation did not come until November 2021. She was commenting on the testing of school children to keep classrooms open and safe. Her comment came on the heels of CDC funding totaling $10 billion to make testing widely available to school districts and was concerned that not enough attention was being focused on testing of students.”
EXCLUSIVE: US Postal Service is accused of sharing private information from 68 million households that applied for free Covid-19 tests with labor unions that could potentially be used for their political campaigns
February 10, 2023 // AFFT CEO Elisabeth Messenger said she fears that if passed to unions by USPS, the data could be used for political campaigning. 'We're talking over 70 million households by now. That's more than half the households in the United States,' she told DailyMail.com.
Do arbitrators go easy on federal employees who challenge being fired?
October 4, 2022 // So in the federal sector, if you’re represented by a union, you have an option if your agency tries to fire you. you can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board what we think of as these standard civil service protections. But you can also file a grievance under your union contract, it’s an either or you can’t do both. But if you choose to, you can file a grievance under the union contract, and your union can bring that instead to an arbitrator. Generally, these are private contractors, they work with the private sector unions, with the private companies with nothing to do with unions, as well as with the the federal workforce, there’s a master roster, maintained by the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service, and the contracts pretty much all say, you’ll get a list of names from this master roster, people strike names to union agency until one guy’s left. That guy then is the arbitrator.
Construction trade association sues state over Whitmer’s ‘unilateral’ prevailing wage policy
July 22, 2022 // "The governor has seemingly revived this repealed procedure, but has not done so by either enforcing legislation or through the procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act," wrote ABC of Michigan, represented by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. "The policy has been implemented by unilateral edict from the governor's office. This is not a proper method of governance and is not binding on plaintiff." ABC of Michigan, Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, Jimmy Greene, Gov. Rick Snyder, Department of Technology Management and Budget, Administrative Procedures Act, DTMB,
Providence firefighter made $142,000 in overtime, pushed his total pay to $230,000
July 12, 2022 // Many fire departments have a minimum staffing clause in their union contracts. The contracts often require that there must be a minimum number of firefighters on duty and any absences that bring staffing below the minimum must be replaced with overtime. Providence Fire Chief Steven Pare, base pay, Providence
Rochester school district under fire over transparency
July 11, 2022 // “The FOIA contains objective standards for what can be obtained through FOIA, and what can be withheld,” Delie said. “The implication that a private actor is influencing that legal determination is unsettling to say the least. The district has an obligation to respond to FOIA requests as provided by law, regardless of the preferences of those who may be mentioned in a record.” Delie pointed to Michigan Compiled Laws 15.232, which defines what is a public record, as well as 15.243, which provides for exemptions in some circumstances. He says the union has no right to challenge the district’s decisions on how to comply with the law, and it should not be afforded a pseudo-vote on what should be disclosed. Andrew Weaver, Superintendent [Robert] Shaner & REA President Doug Hill, Doug Pratt, Debra Fragomeni, Elena Dinverno,