State Ex Rel. Newsome v. Alarid

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that the public’s right to inspection is favored and denial of that right is the exception
• finding statutory definition of “public records” inapplicable to different statute enacted separately
• describing “the right to inspect public documents” as an issue ofpublic importance
• adopting a view that documents coming into official hands should generally be accessible so members of the public can know that the officials are “honestly, faithfully and competently performing their function as public servants” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)
• establishing the “rule of reason” to determine whether documents contained in personnel records that were not explicitly exempted from the statute should be disclosed despite the fact that the statute included exceptions relating to various other types of personnel records
• “documents concerning infractions and disciplinary action” could be “seriously damaging to an employee” and therefore are exempt from disclosure

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).