Terris, Pravlik & Millian, LLP v. District of Columbia
DC Superior Court, Case No. 2020-CA-3087-B
In 2020, Terris, Pravlik & Millian, LLP (TPM) brought a DC Freedom of Information Act (DC FOIA) case against the District of Columbia. TPM asked the DC Superior Court to order the District to turn over budget materials that reflect determinations by DC agencies about how much money they need to do their work. DC law requires that information be made public and posted on a District website.
TPM won in the Superior Court, which rejected the Mayor’s argument that she was entitled to withhold the documents and ordered them to be placed online. The Mayor appealed, arguing that the transparency imposed by statute would violate the DC Charter. TPM was supported on appeal by the Council of the District of Columbia, the DC Open Government Coalition, the ACLU of DC, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, Public Citizen, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Washington, DC Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, all of which appeared as amici curiae.
The DC Court of Appeals, like the Superior Court, rejected the Mayor’s argument that she was entitled to withhold the documents and remanded the case for the Superior Court to clarify exactly what information must be publicly posted and when. The determinations by DC agencies about how much money they need to do their work will be of value in TPM’s work monitoring an injunction related to special education on behalf of preschoolers with disabilities (in DL v. District of Columbia) and to many others in the District, including the DC Council.
The Court of Appeals underscored the importance of this issue at the beginning of its decision. It states:
“The generation that made the nation . . . committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.” U.S. Dep’t of Just. v. Reps. Comm. for Freedom of Press, 489 U.S. 749, 772-73 (1989) (emphasis in original) (quoting EPA v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 80 (1973) (Douglas, J., dissenting)); see also Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, 303 F.3d 681, 683 (6th Cir. 2002) (“Democracies die behind closed doors.”). That principle has informed decades of case law under the Federal Freedom of Information Act and informs our case law under the District of Columbia Freedom of Information Act (D.C. FOIA).
On October 14, 2022, the Washington City Paper reported on this matter and the related dispute between the DC Council and the Mayor in an article titled, “Bowser Fights Budget Transparency. No One Is Surprised.” Click here for that article.
For more information, please contact Todd Gluckman at tgluckman@tpmlaw.com or 202-204-8482.