Republican Harry Purkey is sponsoring a bill that in the Virginia General Assembly which would allow public institutions to deny Freedom of INformation Acts requests if a judge deems the request an effort to harass. The bill is aimed squarely at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and could come up for a vote this week.
The text of the bill reads:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Chapter 37 of Subtitle 2 of Title 2.2 a section numbered 2.2-3715 as follows:
§ 2.2-3715. Protective orders.
Any public body subject to the provisions of this chapter may petition the circuit court in the city or county in which the public body is located for a protective order relieving the public body in whole or in part from its obligation to produce or provide access to public records sought by a particular requester. The court shall grant the petition and enter such an order if the court finds that the request for access to public records is unreasonable, not made in good faith, or motivated primarily by an intent to abuse, harass, or intimidate the public body. In entering the order, the court may require the requester to pay the reasonable attorney’s fees incurred by the public body in obtaining the order.
Purkey introduced the bill after the Virginia Marine Science Museum received an FOIA request from PETA that included a large volume of documents. Purkey introduced the bill after hearing how the museum foundation was overwhelmed by FOIA requests from PETA in 2001.
The law would allow cities and counties to ask a judge to look at the FOIA requests. If the judge finds that requests are “unreasonable, not made in good faith, or motivated primarily by an intent to abuse, harass or intimidate the public body,” the requests could be denied and the person or group making the FOIA requests could be forced to pay the government’s court costs.
Source:
Bill would outlaw some requests for information. Robert McCabe, the Virginian-Pilot, January 29, 2002.