California Public Records Act Applies to Bar Admission Documents ? Sander v. State Bar of California

Richard Sander

In a recent decision by the California Court of Appeal, a member of the public sought access to demographic data to study?California Bar?examination passage rates among members of different racial and ethnic groups. Plaintiff?Richard Sander is an economist and professor of law?at UCLA, though the identical data was requested by the First Amendment Coalition. The trial court rejected Sander?s request for the data.

The unanimous opinion of the First District Court of Appeal in Sander v. State Bar of California held that the trial court erred when it refused to allow?Sander?to view?the demographic data of the?State Bar.? The Court of Appeal disagreed with?the State Bar?s argument?that it should be subject to the less permissive rules that govern court documents. In finding that?the ?common law right of access to public documents is broader than the First Amendment right of access to adjudicatory court documents,? the court remanded the case to the trial judge to determine?whether the State Bar must produce the requested redacted information ?after balancing the applicants? interest in confidentiality and the burden this request imposes on the Bar against the strong public policy favoring disclosure.??Indeed, Sander?had attempted to address these privacy concerns by requesting redacted information.

Sander has been seeking this data for years to help establish his theory about law school admissions known as the ?mismatch effect,? which suggests that affirmative action may be?hindering the success of the very students it seeks to help. As he explained in the?L.A. Times:

Data from across the country suggest to some researchers that when law students attend schools where their credentials (including LSAT scores and college grades) are much lower than the median at the school, they actually learn less, are less likely to graduate and are nearly twice as likely to fail the bar exam than they would have been had they gone to less elite schools.

This skirmish between the professor and the State Bar has brought out numerous heavy hitters in the California legal community, including fellow UCLA Law School Professor?Eugine Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy, one of the most widely read legal blogs in the nation. Volokh referred to this as ?something of a victory? for the people of the State of California who seek access to such documents of their government. In addition, both the First Amendment Coalition and Pacific Legal Foundation issued press releases applauding the court?s decision to open access to government records long held secret.

Why public agencies don?t follow the constitutional and statutory mandate to narrowly construe exemptions to disclosure of public records, with appropriate redactions, remains a mystery.? Perhaps if there were some potential personal liability for a public official?s wrongful withholding of public records, fewer suits would be necessary to protect the public?s right to know.

About James J. Manning

James J. Manning is a Senior Attorney with the Reid & Hellyer law firm in Riverside and has been with the firm throughout his career since 1976. He practices media law, civil litigation, construction law and mediation. Jim holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbard and was named one of the Inland Empire's best lawyers by Inland Empire Magazine in 2010. He serves on the board of directors for the Riverside County Bar Association and is also active with the Orange County Bar Association.

About Scott Talkov

Scott Talkov joined the Riverside law firm of Reid & Hellyer in August 2009 after serving as a Summer Law Clerk with the firm in 2008. He practices real estate and business litigation and serves on the board of directors for the Riverside County Barristers Association, the club for young attorneys in Riverside County. Scott graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and is the founding Director of the Associated Students Legal Clinic at University of California, Riverside.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CaliforniaLitigationAttorneyBlog/~3/yZHtzj5rBXM/

map of us iceland volcano eruption sammy sosa ethanol justin timberlake snl us map lance armstrong