Media appeal ruling about open records

By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 31, 2007

Three news organizations, including The San Diego Union-Tribune, have appealed a judge's decision barring Vista officials from making public the identities of employers registered under the city's day-laborer law.

The litigation was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the city in July to block the release of the names of the employers to an anti-illegal-immigration group based in North County. In June, the group filed a request for the list under the state's public-records law.

Vista began requiring in July 2006 that anyone hiring day laborers off the street register with the city. The list of employers had been released to the Vista Citizens Brigade, an offshoot of the Minuteman Project, and others until the ACLU sued.

Last month, Superior Court Judge Michael Orfield ordered the city not to release the list. He ruled that the employers' right to privacy trumped the public's right to know their identities under the California Public Records Act.

The Union-Tribune's parent company, The Copley Press Inc., is joined by the Los Angeles Times and the California Newspaper Publishers Association in asking the state 4th District Court of Appeal to overturn Orfield's ruling.

In court papers filed Monday, the news organizations reiterated previous arguments that the case should be decided under the framework of the public-records act, which bars pre-emptive lawsuits designed to stop the release of information. They also said the decision undermines the Legislature's intent of allowing the public access to the government's business.

“(Orfield's) decision, if left to stand, seriously infringes on the public's right of access to public records under the California Public Records Act,â€