Public Records

A federal court in Yakima has quashed a subpoena that demanded the medical information of 17 medical marijuana patients, citing the need to protect their privacy. The ACLU represented the medical clinic that holds the patients’ records.

The ACLU-W believes in protection of rights of access to government information. Information is not owned by the government, but merely maintained by it; it should be available to all citizens. Access to information can empower citizens and lead to a more democratic, responsive, and generally better government. This policy does not address the question of what information is collected and maintained by governments; it is only concerned with access to existing information. Neither does it address what information should be exempt from disclosure.

Sunnyside High School students and their parents have negotiated an agreement with Sunnyside School District to clear illegally imposed suspensions from the students’ school records. The suspensions were imposed when the students left school last November to protest the passage of Initiative 200, a measure restricting affirmative action programs.

Responding to citizen demands for action to safeguard sensitive personal information, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington has drafted House and Senate bills to protect the privacy of people’s medical information. The bills would prohibit non-health care providers with legitimate access to medical records from disclosing these medical records to anyone else for further use. The bills would bar insurance companies from marketing medical records to third parties.

The ACLU opposes the REAL ID Act, which will lead to a de facto national identity card, and threaten the privacy of personal information.

The ACLU is trying to put the kibosh on warrantless police searches of hotel registries. Suspicionless searches strike at people’s right to travel freely and violate protections against unreasonable governmental intrusion into one’s private affairs.