{"id":14049,"date":"2023-08-30T10:22:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T14:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=14049"},"modified":"2025-02-06T12:39:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T17:39:54","slug":"alliance-joins-brief-challenging-virginia-governors-office-reliance-on-working-papers-exemption-to-withhold-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/alliance-joins-brief-challenging-virginia-governors-office-reliance-on-working-papers-exemption-to-withhold-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Alliance Joins Brief Challenging Virginia Governor\u2019s Office Reliance on \u201cWorking Papers\u201d Exemption to Withhold Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.listnr.tech\/embed\/voiceover\/64ee50f3a91f8c0025d4a4e5\/?minimal=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"165\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On August 7th, the Alliance joined a <a href=\"https:\/\/s3.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23902530\/2023-08-07-rcfp-amicus-brief-in-the-commonwealth-of-virginia-v-sawyer.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #0082c0; text-decoration: underline;\">brief<\/span><\/span><\/a> in <em>Sawyer v. Virginia<\/em>, filed in the Virginia Court of Appeals. The case concerns a series of public records requests by nonprofit watchdog American Oversight (\u201cAO\u201d), submitted to the Virginia Office of the Governor, seeking information about a \u201cTip Line\u201d set up by the Youngkin administration to end the use of what it termed \u201cinherently divisive concepts\u201d in state education. The requests were made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Va. Code Ann. \u00a7 3700, et seq. (\u201cVFOIA\u201d), which creates a broad presumption in favor of unimpeded public access to government records. The Governor\u2019s office withheld several hundred pages of records claiming they were exempt from disclosure under the VFOIA\u2019s \u201cworking papers exemption\u201d. AO narrowed the scope of its requests to ensure they do not fall within the scope of that exemption, but the Governor\u2019s office continued to withhold the records. AO filed suit in Arlington County Circuit Court and the court ruled in AO\u2019s favor, ordering the Governor\u2019s office to disclose responsive records. The Governor\u2019s office is appealing that decision, arguing an overly broad interpretation of the exemption that would result in essentially any record or communication merely passing through the office to be exempt from disclosure. The brief, filed by RCFP, urges the Court of Appeals to uphold the Circuit Court\u2019s ruling and argues that the Governor\u2019s interpretation would fly in the face of the intent of the VFOIA. Public access to government records is not only vital to the work of journalists but is also essential to democracy in allowing oversight of the actions of government agencies. <span style=\"color: #0082c0;\"><a style=\"color: #0082c0;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/commonwealth-of-virginia-v-sawyer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 7th, the Alliance joined a brief in Sawyer v. Virginia, filed in the Virginia Court of Appeals. The case concerns a series of public records requests by nonprofit watchdog American Oversight (\u201cAO\u201d), submitted to the Virginia Office of the Governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":13262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,206],"tags":[716],"class_list":["post-14049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","category-free-press","tag-tag-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}