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).

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]

Background

Supporters of the FOIA request

Criticisms of the FOIA request

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]."

Associated cases

See Also

• New York Freedom of Information Law

External links

References