New law blocks non-residents from public records; but LV is more than happy to stand in as proxy for any such requests
New law blocks non-residents from public records; but LV is more than happy to stand in as proxy for any such requests
June 4, 2024 by tomaswell
Well, just call me jaded, skeptical, suspicious and downright distrustful but there should be a ton of questions about the passage of an 11th-hour amendment of House Bill 268.
The BILL, authored by Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson (R-Pineville), was originally written to keep the home phone numbers and addresses of public employees confidential and was a good thing on its surface.
But Johnson, at Landry’s request, tacked on a last-second amendment, adopted in a closed-door session that even the Hayride professes to DISDAIN, that excluded travel plans for the governor and his family out of concern for the “safety of the governor, his spouse or his child.”
Okay, sure, we all want our public servants – and their families – to be safe. But it’s an 85-day legislative session so why wait until the 80th day slip in this amendment? It’s almost enough to make a political pragmatist like me thing some other ulterior motive might have been at play here – something so furtive as to necessitate parliamentary chicanery to sneak it through.
Ultimately, the bill, as amended, was approved in the HOUSE by an 86-12 vote, with seven representatives taking a walk. The SENATE was even more obliging, passing the amended bill by a unanimous 37-0 vote with only two abstentions.
The intent of the amendment may well have been completely benign but my suspicious nature, fed by early efforts by Landry to seize complete control of state government, leaves me less than convinced of the purity of intent here.
Take HB-767 by Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro), for example. The bill, like HB 268 discussed above, was amended to prohibit any non-resident of the state from requesting public records from the governor’s office.
That little gem probably stems from a 2019 ARGUMENT by then-Attorney General Landry that an Indiana resident was not entitled to records about Landry’s dealing with the oil industry. Scarlett Martin SUED Landry over his refusal to comply with her request. That lawsuit never went to trial because ultimately, Landry’s hollow bluff CRATERED and he eventually turned over more than 6,200 pages of documents to Martin. He likewise lost in efforts to protect public records from two other in-state publications, the Baton Rouge Advocate and The Lens, a New Orleans online publication.
Those little setbacks must’ve really stuck in his craw for him to come clawing back in efforts to shut down the release of public records through the legislative process.
Not that Landry himself is not above using public records to his own advantage, like when he obtained hundreds of pages of public records from the EPA which it used to TARGET environmental activists who claimed that permitting practices allowed petro-chemical plants to disproportionately adversely affect black citizens in Cancer Alley.
Emerson’s bill, RESTRICTING the release of public records to Louisiana residents only, passed the HOUSE by a vote of 79-18, again with seven members not voting. The SENATE was again super-compliant, approving the bill by a unanimous vote of 35-0 with four not voting.
But what would a problem be without a solution? I mean, if Landry can obtain public records to thwart efforts by citizens concerned over adverse environmental impacts to their communities, there should be a way that two could play his game.
Well, there is.
Anyone who resides outside Louisiana who wishes to obtain public records from Landry’s office need only contact me at LouisianaVoice and I will be more than happy to make the necessary requests – and to file suit to get them should that become a necessity.
I am a lifelong resident of Louisiana and I’m certainly old enough to meet any age requirements.