A nationwide review of state procedures by The Associated Press and CNHI News reveals a patchwork of complicated systems for resolving open government disputes that often put the burden of enforcing transparency laws on private citizens.
Dana Holladay-Hollifield poses for a photo in front of Hunstville Hospital, in Huntsville, Ala., Feb. 27, 2024. Holladay-Hollifield has worked as a nurse in Alabama for years, but never was her pay as low as it was at Huntsville Hospital. Simon Campbell poses for a photograph in Yardley, Pa., Friday, March 1, 2024. Pennsylvania is one of few states with a robust office for resolving open records disputes.
Holladay-Hollifield’s predicament represents what experts say is a fundamental breakdown of American democracy: the fact that, in most states, the most effective — and often only — option for residents to resolve open government disputes is to sue. 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.
The problem? Those emails are on servers controlled by county commissioners, who refused to hand them over. Campbell’s involvement was as a hobbyist, one with a mean streak for bureaucrats stymying public access. He took up a stalled fight first waged by The Daily Item, a CNHI affiliate.
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