I’ve always thought this was much ado about not very much, but the Herald was denied access to the records surrounding Murray’s car accident. The article wasn’t clear, but was Murray using a phone owned and provided by the state? Otherwise, I assume there would be no question that the records are not public.
Please share widely!
I don’t believe that the Public Records Law applies to the offices of the Governor or Lt. Governor. Accordingly, it doesn’t matter who owned Murray’s cell phone.
Neither office is automatically exempted from the Public Recored Law. Some parts of their activities are, but mostly only matters about personnel and contract negotiations. The exemptions they receive are fairly narrow but there is no great body of court rulings in this area. See page 9 and 10 of the Secretary of State’s easy read guide to the law.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf
LAMBERT v. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE JUDICIAL NOMINATING COUNCIL, 425 Mass. 406 (1997)
A lawsuit was brought to obtain certain records of the Judicial Nominating Council. The Court ruled that records of the JNC are the Governor’s records, and therefore not within the scope of the Public Records Law. The Court ruled:
The JNC was created to assist the Governor in carrying out his constitutional obligation. It is an interviewing and screening body whose sole purpose is to assist the Governor.[7] It has no public function. The JNC’s records are essentially the Governor’s records on judicial appointments. Those records are not within G. L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth.[8]
The SJC has spoken.
If I were the guy who won Worcester County 57-38 percent, I wouldn’t put the very popular former Mayor and current Chamber of Commerce President under that spotlight either.