Yesterday a Judge ruled Governor Gregoire broke the law by invoking “executive privilege” as a way to withhold public records requested by a citizen.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation wrote an excellent blog on the ruling which detailed the history of the case, as well as Gregoire’s use of the non-existent “executive privilege” to hide public records a shocking 421 times. And that’s just since 2007!
Apparently Gregoire doesn’t want anyone to have access to documents relating to the state’s tribal gambling compact, the sale and departure of the Seattle Sonics, the selection and appointment of judges, the state’s regulation of marijuana, clemency petitions of death-row inmates, and state employees’ public email accounts—even if she has to break the law to deny that access.
The state’s Public Records Act, which the Washington Supreme Court once called “a strongly worded mandate for broad disclosure of public records,” has over the years been gutted with over 300 statutory exemptions that give elected officials and bureaucrats the opportunity to keep taxpayers in the dark. But “executive privilege” is not one of them.
And even if it was, Gregoire would still be guilty of breaking the law—the Judge ruled if an “executive privilege” exemption did exist, the documents Gregoire tried to keep hidden under that guise would not be considered privileged. As the Judge bluntly put it:
“I can’t imagine any circumstances under which any privilege would extend to protect this particular memo.”
Guess who defended Gregoire’s flagrant violation of the Public Records Act (despite the absence of an “executive privilege” exemption and the Judge’s determination that even if such an exemption existed the doc in question would not qualify for “executive privilege” protection)? Yep, that would be The Hammer’s favorite defender of state government, Attorney General Rob McKenna.
McKenna says it is his job to defend state agencies and officials—and in part he is right. But when government knowingly and purposely breaks the law, Attorneys General have the right to refuse to defend the state. And plenty of AGs before McKenna have exercised that right and just said no to defending lawbreaking state government, telling them to quit breaking the law or hire another attorney. Ken Eikenberry, one of McKenna’s “Three Wise Men,” was one of these AGs. Ironically, McKenna peddled a folksy story when he first ran for AG that his Three Wise Men would be the “source of one guiding principle should he be elected.”
“They each said the same thing to me: ‘Rob, remember that as attorney general, you have to put the people first and then the state agencies.’”
So much for guiding principles.
