The State Journal Register has one of the finest encapsulations of the Blagojevich administration:
GOV. ROD BLAGOJEVICH has again found a creative way to skirt the intent of Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act in denying The State Journal-Register — and the public — the right to look at a clemency file.
The newspaper had sought the clemency petition of Latasha Lofton of Springfield, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in 1995, and was one of 22 people pardoned by Blagojevich in December. Throughout his time in office, the governor had been criticized for not acting on clemency petitions. It seems obvious to us that if court records of convictions are public record, as they are, the documents that reverse them should be public as well.
But the governor feels otherwise, and in denying this request, he cited a case decided by the North Carolina Supreme Court, a lawyer for the Prisoner Review Board said.
THE NORTH CAROLINA court ruled that such files are gubernatorial property and releasing them under public records laws would violate the separation-of-powers doctrine in the Tar Heel state’s constitution.
The lawyer, Ken Tupy, said the governor’s lawyers argued that since North Carolina’s constitution is similar, the North Carolina court ruling applies and that state law would have to be changed to release such records under Illinois’ FOIA law.
This is contrived nonsense, of course. North Carolina court decisions have no bearing on Illinois.
What’s great is that Tupy tells the SJR to wait for Quinn taking over because Tupy plans on asking Governor Quinn to allow Tupy to release the records.