Our newly elected “People’s Lawyer” Maura Healey is showing what the Attorney General can accomplish if she works for the people.
Newly elected Attorney General Maura Healey said this week she’s optimistic she can give the public greater access to government records by resolving a longstanding rift between her office and the secretary of state’s.
That friction has effectively blocked the state from enforcing the law intended to give the public access to government records for the past five years. …
The problem arose partly because of a quirk in the Massachusetts public records law. The secretary of state’s office is charged with deciding whether records are public when citizens appeal. But that law doesn’t give him the authority to go to court when agencies refuse to abide by the decisions. That’s up to the attorney general.
But Coakley and her predecessors sometimes disagreed with Galvin’s rulings and refused to enforce the decisions.
Out of frustration, Galvin’s office stopped referring orders to the attorney general altogether years ago.
Of course, it may well be that protecting insiders was the primary cause of “That friction,” whatever the specific legal parsings and political posturing may have been. If so, the degree to which this challenge to Beacon Hill’s Fortress of Secrecy produces any practical results — because the forces of darkness will fight back, of course — will become clearer in relatively short order.
In any event, WTG AG Healey!
Christopher says
…and wondering if splitting the prerogatives between the SoC and AG was somebody’s idea of maintaining checks and balances, such that neither office can act without the cooperation of the other.
centralmassdad says
or such that neither will act while maintaining the ability to blame someone else.
kregan67 says
To work for Ms. Coakely, knowing she wasn’t doing her job on this front?
Either way, here’s hoping she follows through on this rhetoric when push comes to shove–and it will.
Also: The idea that the legislature would ever change the law to remove its own exemptions is a complete joke. Bob DeLeo–to name but one high-profile offender– literally wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he had to do what he does in the light of day.