The Supreme Court will hear argument this year in two separate cases that challenge longstanding OPRA law protecting the confidentiality of law enforcement officers’ personnel information. The requestors in these cases essentially seek to have the Supreme Court hold that OPRA’s personnel exemption doesn’t apply to law enforcement officers.

FOP v. City of Newark raises the issue of whether records of police internal affairs investigations are entirely exempt under OPRA. And the requestor in Libertarians for Transparent Govt. v. State Police contends that OPRA compels the disclosure of the name of law enforcement officers who were terminated for misconduct.

The Supreme Court’s opinions in these two cases will obviously have a major impact on law enforcement employees. But the treatment of the personnel records of all other types of government employees also is at stake in these cases. The Court is being asked to interpret OPRA’s personnel exemption, which does not differentiate between law enforcement and other public employees. As a result, the Court’s ruling will necessarily affect access to all personnel information under OPRA.