TESTIMONY TO THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

HB 53 Public Records - Provision of Copies, Printouts and Photographs - Required

POSITION: Support

BY:  Susan Cochran, President

DATE: January 23, 2014

The League of Women Voters of Maryland is a nonpartisan organization of citizen activists and volunteers from communities across the state.  Over the more than nine decades of its existence, the League has always worked toward a government that is open and transparent and that works on behalf of all Americans. 

This legislation provides for judicial review of a custodian’s decision to deny copies of public records to citizens whether or not such copies have already been made.  Current law does not provide for judicial review of such decisions or for copying these records.  The League supports this much needed change in current law which broadens the right of citizens to obtain copies of those public records to which they are otherwise entitled and to judicial review of decisions to deny them that right.