The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s order to limit Internet access to court documents was another example of Oklahoma’s annoying tendency to backslide on constitutionally protected civil rights.
Fortunately, the order was rescinded Tuesday, but not before some filings were pulled off the Internet altogether.
The troubling aspect of the original decision was its disregard for the First Amendment and laws protecting public records access.
The fact that this decision was made by a part of the judicial branch and not the legislative branch is troubling by itself.
The order issued March 11 and scheduled to go into affect June 10 was explained as a protection of citizens from identity theft. However, the information that would have been redacted by the new rules included date of birth and other identifying characteristics, not just social security numbers.
The lack of identifying information in filings would have stymied not only the work of journalists, but also lawyers, businesses and citizens.
Not only did the order fly in the face of the Oklahoma Open Records Act, but also the Federal Freedom of Information Act guaranteeing access to government records.
According to the Oklahoma Open Records Act, the public must have “right of access to and review of government records so they may efficiently and intelligently exercise their political power” as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Furthermore, the court did not acknowledge federal court precedent that favors disclosure due to a tradition of access to the information.
Because the information has been available online for several years, it qualifies as having a tradition of access.
We were confident that full access to records would be restored.
Incident to this situation and a possible unfortunate side effect, is the state Supreme Court’s decision to limit access to protect citizens from identity theft.
Well, it appears the cat is out of the bag. All it takes is for someone thousands of miles away, possibly in another country, to read that this information is still available online and they will use it to commit fraud.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court may have actually put more citizens in danger of identity theft when it called attention to the vulnerability with frivolous and illegal rules.
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