The state of New Jersey, where Reclaim The Records has successfully acquired and freely released millions of historical records in recent years, is trying to amend their state-level Freedom of Information law, which they call the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), to limit access through bills S2930/A4045.

This controversial plan was pulled from the state Appropriations Committee at the last minute with promises that it would return.

“Democracy is being threatened all over the country, and this is an outrageous and immoral effort,” Beverly Brown Ruggia, the financial justice program director for New Jersey Citizen Action said, calling the bill an “attempt to gut one of the most democratic” pieces of legislation in the state.

This bill to gut the power of the state’s public records law has raised concern among genealogists, historians, journalists, and champions for government transparency to the level of action.

Recent efforts through OPRA have finally released the New Jersey Marriage Index (1901-2016). Back in 2017, when they first tried to get a copy, the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) refused to release the index and Reclaim the Records prepared to file suit. With the help of the office the New Jersey Attorney General they were eventually posted online, for free, for everyone.  A few months later, Reclaim the Records again leveraged OPRA to obtain the first-ever New Jersey Death Index.

One of the reasons these efforts were possible was that unlike many other states’ open records laws, New Jersey’s OPRA mandates that someone who wins a records access lawsuit against the state deserves to have their attorneys fees paid by the state. Because of this, state government agencies are more hesitant to blatantly break the law and wrongly withhold records from the public, because they know they will be on the hook for the fees if they lose the case.

The newly-proposed bill would change that law however, an attempt to chill the ability of requestors to challenge agencies that withhold government records.

You can read more in an article in the New York Almanack web site at: https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2024/03/new-jersey-records-access/