Category: Your Right To Know

In a scene from the movie “A Few Good Men,” the character played by Tom Cruise spars with Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Jessup over a hazing that killed a soldier. Cruise demands, “I want the truth!,” to which Nicholson famously responds, “You can’t handle the truth!” Wisconsin citizens are getting the “You can’t handle the truth” […]

Recently, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information issued a statement calling for greater transparency and accountability from law enforcement. They were joined by more than 50 groups, including the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, Wisconsin Newspaper Association, and the Wisconsin Transparency Project. “Trust is a key element […]

In March, as Wisconsin enacted Safer at Home, state and local governments scrambled to build new ways to govern from remote locations while still complying with our open meeting laws. Even in the age of COVID-19, we still have the right to watch public bodies in action. In a positive step for government transparency, people […]

Donald Trump says it’s just not fair. The president, through his campaign, is suing television station WJFW-TV in Rhinelander for airing a political ad that allegedly defamed him. “The advertisement was the product of an intentional and malicious effort to manufacture a false statement through the use of digital technology,” the lawsuit filed on April […]

Believe it or not, this has been a relatively quiet time on the open government front. In my role with the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, I often field calls from reporters and citizens regarding the problems they are experiencing getting access to public meetings and records. In recent weeks, those calls are down, way […]

Every year brings forth new heroes and villains with regard to Wisconsin’s somewhat tattered tradition of open government. This year, it seems, we have had more heroes. In fact, in two categories for its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council was unable to settle on only a single […]

During the hectic legislative session in February, one thing got lost: the public’s ability to participate fully in the process. That’s because the public wasn’t given adequate notice of some public hearings. Take Feb. 13. Two Assembly hearings that day were held at 11:01 a.m. and 12:01 p.m. For both these hearings, the Wisconsin Democracy […]

As founder of We the Irrelevant, a website that tracks how well (or poorly) the actions of legislators match up with what the public has asked them to do, I have sent multiple open records requests to Wisconsin legislators on a variety of controversial initiatives. Each time, I’ve asked them for related citizen correspondence. I […]

Just shy of two years ago, this column explored the heightened importance of open government when public health is at risk. Multiple examples showed the government was not sharing timely information with the public, or even other branches of government, on issues such as clean drinking water and chronic wasting disease. Some progress may be […]

You can walk into City Hall asking to see records without ever having to give your name. You can mail or email an open records request to any public entity without giving any indication of who you are. You don’t even need to submit a written request. You can make the request orally and still […]

Wisconsin’s tradition of government transparency rests on the state’s open records and open meetings laws. They declare that nearly every government document is open to public inspection, and nearly every meeting of groups formed to do governmental work must be open to the public. Unfortunately, those laws are woefully underenforced. District attorneys and the state’s […]

Early in his administration, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers was asked to produce a letter he’d gotten from departing Gov. Scott Walker, during the transition. He initially refused, claiming it was a “purely personal” communication outside of the reach of the state’s open records law. When the Associated Press asked me for comment, in my role […]

In May, as the state Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee considered a plan to spend far less on education than what Democrat Gov. Tony Evers proposed, Sheila Plotkin started filing public records requests. Plotkin asked nearly every member of the Joint Finance Committee for correspondence they had received from Wisconsin residents about education funding. All of […]

As Justice Shirley Abrahamson ends her tenure on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, after 43 years and more than 1,300 authored opinions, she leaves a rich legacy of legal scholarship, importantly including her support for government transparency. While on the court, Abrahamson faithfully applied the presumption in favor of public access in the open records and […]

Wisconsin’s open records law applies to all records requests, big or small. But under former Attorney General Brad Schimel, the Wisconsin Department of Justice implemented a restrictive policy that limited access based on the number of potentially responsive emails. After being sued by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), the Justice Department rescinded its […]

When University of Wisconsin-Madison student journalist Peter Coutu investigated frequent lottery winners in Wisconsin in 2018, he uncovered a pattern: the owners and clerks of stores that sell lottery tickets seemed to have more luck than normal. In his article for Wisconsin Watch, Coutu consulted a statistical expert, who concluded that the lucky streaks among […]

When so much about politics is partisan, one might expect a topic like police body cameras to be contentious, particularly as it relates to public access to recordings. But proposed legislation to regulate the use of these cameras was approved by nine of the 10 members of the committee that produced it, and received unanimous […]

Wisconsin legislators are looking to reform current law governing the expungement of criminal records. Among other things, SB-39 would allow those convicted of crimes for which the maximum term of imprisonment is six years or less (including some felonies) to ask a judge to expunge their convictions even if they fail to do so at […]

As part of Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of open government that runs from March 10-16, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is bestowing its 13th annual Openness Awards, or Opees. This year’s honorees reflect the range of people fighting for transparency in Wisconsin, from a citizens group to a Wisconsin state senator, from the […]

The more we know about the efforts by officials in Racine to shield public records from public view, the more outrageous it seems. In late January, the office of Racine City Attorney Scott Letteney disclosed a summary of records it has fought tooth and nail to keep secret. It showed these to be ordinary email […]