Public Entitled to World Series Ticket-Scalping Documents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ST. LOUIS – Today, the Missouri Court of Appeals agreed that the public has a right to review records related to the 2006 World Series ticket-scalping scandal. The court upheld the trial court’s ruling that police officers could not invoke a right to privacy as a means to conceal documents which pertain to misconduct while performing their official duties.

The Court ruled that documents the officers sought to hide from the public are exactly the type of information the Sunshine Law was intended to cover. Once again, the police department has been ordered to release all of the records the ACLU requested back in 2007.

“The Sunshine Law is intended to bring transparency to government actions. Today’s decision allows the law to work,” explains Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. “When government officials engage in on-the-job misconduct, the public has a right to know what happened and how it was investigated.”

“The Sunshine Law is good in principle, but it is only effective if it is put in practice,” says Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri. “The ACLU is here to fight when the government is determined to hide public records from the public.”

The ACLU of Missouri is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that defends and expands the constitutional rights and civil liberties of all Missourians guaranteed under the United States and Missouri Constitutions, through its litigation, legislative and public education programs. It is an affiliate of the national ACLU.