The mission of the Connecticut Judicial Branch is to serve the interests of justice and the public by resolving matters brought before it in a fair, timely, efficient and open manner.

Freedom of Information Law Supreme Court Opinion

by Dowd, Jeffrey

 

SC20656 - Drumm v. Freedom of Information Commission (Exception from law enforcement records; "Because § 1-210 (b) seeks to strike a balance between competing public goods, fostering openness and transparency while protecting important governmental functions that demand a degree of confidentiality, it makes sense that the legislature would have carved out an exception only for law enforcement actions that are, at the very least, reasonable possibilities. ...Although the commission found this evidence to be insufficient to satisfy the respondents’ burden, we find it significant that the commission’s final decision was predicated, as we explain hereinafter, on the clearly erroneous factual finding that the police department had not identified a suspect and, potentially, on the application of a standard that required the respondents to demonstrate either an actual or pending law enforcement action. Because application of the reasonable possibility standard that we adopted in this opinion is fact intensive, we conclude that the case must be remanded to the commission for further proceedings.")