By: Taj R. Chrisp
Yesterday an appeals court dismissed a lawsuit that went against the Wisconsin lawmakers’ actions of withholding drafts or bills from the general public, but sharing these same documents with lobbyists.
According to firstamendmentcenter.org, the District 1 Court of Appeals ruled in State v. Zien that the former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager doesn’t have the legal ability to continue the case since she was not re-elected to office in 2006.
In 2005 Lautenschlager filed suit seeking a court order to declare that when lawmakers share drafts of bills with interest groups, like lobbyists, the documents should be declared as public records. Her claim was that the open-records law was violated, and that certain groups were given greater social influence than regular citizens.
Lautenschlager’s successor didn’t appeal the case, but she decided to after hiring her own attorneys.
The appeals court said that private citizens like Lautenschlager don’t have the right to appeal such a case when the attorney general gets involved to put the open-records law in action on their behalf.
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