Records Closure at the State Level through Local FOIA Laws: Has It Happened to You?
Posted by Barbara Mathews
on Monday, 23 July 2012
in Legislation US States not NE
Barbara Mathews
Barbara serves as the Civil Records Co-Director (Federal) and as the Archives Di
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We are soliciting your input. Have you ever been denied records by any state simply because you are not a resident of that state?
It recently came to our attention here at the Massachusetts Genealogical Council that some states have their own Freedom of Information Acts, but that these are designed to restrict records access. With this restriction in place, a hypothetical situation would be that a reporter for the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune or the Boston Globe would be unable to access the records. What is true for reporters is true also for genealogists and historians.
Delaware law Chapter 100, Section 10003 (a), restricts access to any citizen of the State:
All public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizen of the State during regular business hours by the custodian of the records for the appropriate public body.
Virginia also restricts records access...
