The Supreme Court’s recent decision to review Matter of Fireman’s Ass’n Obligation to Provide Relief Application has attracted attention for presenting the novel issue of whether OPRA permits public agencies to file declaratory judgment suits concerning access to records. But the case also involves review of whether the Appellate Division correctly ordered disclosure of an applicant’s financial relief assistance award. This ruling raises crucial, unsettled issues concerning the extent that New Jersey law protects individuals’ privacy interests–issues of far greater public importance than the litigation procedure question presented by this matter.
I’ve previously expressed my view that the issue of whether agencies may file OPRA declaratory judgment suits is not especially significant. In most cases, agencies should have no need to bring a declaratory judgment action under OPRA–they can simply deny the request, and then defend that decision if a requestor files a court or GRC complaint. I doubt that declaratory judgment OPRA complaints will be filed very often, even if the Supreme Court rules that such actions are permissible.
In contrast, because public bodies often face OPRA requests for records that involve an expectation of privacy, the Supreme Court’s consideration of the privacy question in the Fireman’s Ass’n case is extremely significant. OPRA custodians have little case law guidance on how to handle the difficult issue of protecting privacy interests. The Supreme Court established the basic guidelines governing OPRA’s privacy provision in its 2009 Burnett opinion, but there are few published court opinions since then that have applied these standards.
The records sought in Fireman’s Ass’n would reveal the recipient of financial relief payments and the amount paid. The Appellate Division determined that such information is subject to the expectation of privacy, because it shows that the award recipient was in financial distress. Typically, private information like this about a person’s financial status would be kept confidential. However, applying Burnett’s balancing test, the Appellate Division concluded that the interest in public disclosure, based on the allegation that there may have been some impropriety in granting an award to the applicant in question, outweighed the privacy interest.
The Appellate Division’s holding only affects the specific records in question in the case, but of course any discussion by the Supreme Court has much broader precedential value. The Supreme Court’s clarification of how to resolve privacy concerns raised by OPRA requests is sure to have an impact on access to many types of records.
Will the Supreme Court agree with the Appellate Division’s analysis, or give greater weight to the privacy interests that are present here? The answer to this question will affect how courts and record custodians should evaluate all future privacy issues raised by OPRA requests, and consequently will have an enormous effect on privacy rights in New Jersey.