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FOI Request for Solicitor General Applications Turned Down by AG

2 min read

If you were wondering who’s in the running to be the new solicitor general at the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, so were we.

But apparently we won’t find out anytime soon — and probably never.

See, Judd Deere, the public information officer for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, invoked an exemption in the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act by asserting in an email that the job applications “are part of the attorney general’s working papers.”

He pointed out that all previous administrations have ruled applications are “working papers,” which keeps them shielded from nosy reporters and other members of the public.

Apparently, that exemption will be open-ended. “There are no plans at this time to make these working papers public at the end of process,” he added.

FOI Request

Even as Whispers was wrangling with Deere, Rutledge announced that she will hold a statewide “tele-town hall meeting” on Thursday to educate the public about the FOIA.

The office claims to champion “transparency and open government,” but we had a rather different experience.

At 10:24 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8, a reporter from Arkansas Business sent an email asking Judd for the applications.

His complete response: “I do not have those documents.”

Under the law, any request for public information is an official FOI request, but Deere must not have known that because in a subsequent telephone conversation he suggested that the reporter could submit an official request. Trying to be cooperative, the reporter sent another email — at 10:50 a.m. — asking for the solicitor general applications.

Deere then said that the documents were in “active use,” so the office had, under the law, three business days to respond.

And that’s what he did. At 10:50 a.m. on Monday, exactly three business days after the second request was submitted, Deere sent an email denying the request on the grounds that the applications were exempt from release.

When pressed as to why it took three working days — five days total — to deny a request, Deere eventually said that he didn’t know that the request would be denied until Monday morning.

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