Elbert County fights lawsuit challenging ID requirement for records requesters
Elbert County officials are fighting a pro se lawsuit that challenges the county’s policy of requiring records requesters to show identification.
CORA
Lawsuit: UNC violated open records law by not disclosing ‘official business’ text messages
The operator of a college basketball tournament alleges in a lawsuit that the University of Northern Colorado and an athletic department official violated the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) by denying access to text messages from the official’s personal cellphone.
Court secrecy, a handcuffed journalist, ‘Access Denied’: CFOIC’s year-in-review 2018
Two words come to mind when looking back at 2018’s government transparency highlights and lowlights in Colorado. Judicial secrecy.
Colorado securities commissioner did not withhold records from consultant, judge says
A judge ruled against a Texas-based consultant who alleged that Colorado’s recently retired securities commissioner violated the Colorado Open Records Act by refusing to fulfill a records request “unless and until” the consultant identified his client.
A ‘reverse’ CORA lawsuit backfires on the town of Paonia
A district court judge in Delta County ruled that the town of Paonia improperly invoked CORA’s safe harbor clause in a lawsuit against Bill Brunner, a former town trustee who had requested numerous records in 2017. Not only should the town have turned the records over to Brunner, Judge Steven Schultz wrote, he is entitled to be reimbursed for his legal costs and attorney fees because Paonia officials “failed to exercise reasonable diligence or reasonable inquiry” before going ahead with the suit.
Court in Watts case is wrong venue to decide access to autopsies, media groups and CFOIC say
A judge should deny the prosecutors’ motion to keep autopsy reports from the public in the Frederick triple homicide case because the criminal court lacks jurisdiction to decide that question, a media coalition and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition argued.
Should you have to show an ID to request public records in Colorado?
Should you have to show identification to inspect or get copies of public records? Unlike a few states such as Virginia and Tennessee, Colorado has no requirement that freedom-of-information requests be made by people who actually live in the state. So what’s the point? Is it legal?
Brauchler tries ‘crowdsourcing’ an alternative way to appeal open-records denials
Two years ago, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition published a study showing that at least 26 states offer some kind of dispute-resolution process as an alternative to suing the government for improperly withholding public records. We asked whether the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) should provide another way to appeal a rejection. Now, a candidate for Colorado attorney general is trying to focus attention on the same issue by “crowdsourcing” a proposal on social media.
Fifty years of the Colorado Open Records Act: ‘Terrible, terrible piece of legislation!’
To commemorate CORA’s golden anniversary, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition asked a few Coloradans for their thoughts on what what the open records law means to them and what it has meant for the people of our state.
Securities commissioner fights lawsuit that says he demanded identity of CORA requester’s client
Colorado’s securities commissioner is fighting a lawsuit that claims his office refused to fulfill a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request “unless and until” the requester identified his client.