Capital Newspapers v. Whalen

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Capital Newspapers vs. Whalen Number: 69 N.Y. 2d 246, 248 Year: 1987 State: New York Other lawsuits in New York Other lawsuits in 1987 Precedents include: 1.) Eliminated any considerations of purpose with regards to accepting or denying public records requests. 2.) Personal documents intermingled with public records become public records.

Contents 1 Important precedents 2 Background 3 Supporters of the FOIA request 4 Criticisms of the FOIA request 5 Ruling of the court 6 Associated cases 7 See Also 8 External links 9 References

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Capital Newspapers v. Whalen is a 1987 court case concerning the New York Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

[edit] Important precedents

The court held that documents can be considered public under FOIL regardless of whether the document has a governmental purpose.

The court noted that personal or unofficial documents intermingled with official government files being kept or held by a governmental entity are records covered under FOIL.^[1]

[edit] Background

[edit] Supporters of the FOIA request

[edit] Criticisms of the FOIA request

[edit] Ruling of the court

The court found nothing to suggest that the state legislature, when it passed FOIL, intended a "content-based limitation in defining the term 'record' . . . . Moreover . . . permitting an agency to engage in a unilateral prescreening of those documents which it deems to be outside the scope of FOIL would be inconsistent with [the statute]."

[edit] Associated cases

[edit] See Also

• New York Freedom of Information Law

[edit] External links

[edit] References