Recent Court Decisions

The Tribune sought to gain access to information regarding the identities and addresses of the parents of applicants to the University of Illinois. They submitted a request citing the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which the University denied. The University cited an exemption allowing them to withhold information prohibited from disclosure by state or federal law as the reason for the denial. The court did not allow the case to proceed, stating that a federal court would not have subject-matter jurisdiction. Because the case was about interpreting the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, a state law of Illinois, the case would need to be heard by an Illinois State Court.

Jared Boyer, IASB Extern

This opinion upheld binding opinion from the Public Access Counselor, PAO 11-6. PAO 11-6 required the City of Champaign to provide certain emails and text messages stored on public officials’ private computers and electronic devices in response to a FOIA request. The opinion narrowed PAO 11-6 by instructing that emails and text messages stored on private devices of public officials are “public records” only when the communications are sent or received during a public meeting (as opposed to being public records when they “pertain to the transaction of public business. . .”).

School officials should contact their local board attorney for assistance. It is worth noting that it may be possible to transform a private non-public record into a public record by accessing private emails and text messages that have nothing to do with the “transaction of public business” during public meetings. At the time of publication, it is unclear whether this case will be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

A newspaper filed a FOIA request seeking two performance evaluations of the superintendent and a letter from the board to the superintendent explaining its discontent. If the documents fell into an exemption listed in FOIA, they would be “per se” exempt from disclosure. Here the requested documents were properly placed in the superintendent’s personnel file and were thus exempt from disclosure.

A circuit court in Madison County, Illinois (5th Appellate District) erred in concluding that public body followed Freedom of Information Act when it refused plaintiff permission to examine original audio tape recording of the public body’s meeting and instead only offered to make plaintiff a copy of the recording for a fee. The public body refused to allow the plaintiff to listen to the original tape for concerns of preservation of the original tape. However, the Appellate Court stated that it cannot ignore the intent of the legislature as evinced by the plain language of the Freedom of Information Act. The Act states that public bodies must make public records available for inspection and copying, unless they can avoid doing so by invoking an exception that is provided in the Act. The fact that a public body lacks the facilities for the public to listen to audiotapes is not a valid basis upon which to deny a request to inspect a tape-recorded public record.

Plaintiff requested an Excel spreadsheet of IDOT’s red light camera enforcement system. Plaintiff was doing research and writing for a national report on the effectiveness of red light camera technology. IDOT produced an Excel spreadsheet in a locked version.

FOIA language is broad enough to require IDOT to produce unlocked electronic copy of the Excel spreadsheet to allow Plaintiff to fully exercise functions of the Excel program. An award of $12,561 in reasonable attorney’s fees and costs was allowed by Section 11(i) of FOIA.