Ohio Governor Bob Taft now has limited "executive privilege"

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060413/BREAKINGNEWS/60413029


Court rules Taft has limited 'executive privilege'

By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF


COLUMBUS — For the first time in Ohio history, the state Supreme Court ruled that the governor has a limited power to withhold documents from the public when the information is “made for the purpose of fostering informed and sound policymaking.”

But in a 5-2 decision, the court majority said even if the governor asserts what is referred to as “executive privilege,” citizens can gain access to information if they can show a “particularized need to review the communications to or from the governor when the communications are made for the purpose of fostering informed and sound policymaking.”

The ruling by the GOP-controlled court was in a public records case filed by state Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from the Youngstown area who sued Gov. Bob Taft after seeking records about what Mr. Taft knew and when he knew about investment losses at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, chief among them the $50 million rare-coin investment managed by Toledo area coin dealer and Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe and a $215 million loss in a hedge fund run by MDL Capital Management, of Pittsburgh.

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