Our good friend Armen Yousoufian has won a major Supreme Court ruling in his decade+ public records case against Ron Sims, the Tacoma News-Tribune reports: "Supreme Court says judge fined King County too little for giving citizen runaround on records request for Seahawk stadium".
This is a victory not only for Armen Yousoufian, but for all citizens who insist on remaining informed and who do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them and who do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 15, 2009 12:55 PM | Email ThisI am so glad he has prevailed! Kudos.
He rented space to the Libertarian Party of WA for a while. He's a friend of Liberty.
Posted by: Bruce Guthrie on January 15, 2009 02:06 PMGerry Alexander - doesn't like the direction by the court to impose a fine, "at the high end of the penalty range." Maybe $15.50 a day works for Alexander. Or maybe the court should have imposed $100 a day penalty itself instead of continuing this litigation by sending it back to lower court? Nah, I don't believe that either.
Susan Owens,Barbara Madsen, and Karen G. Seinfeld (filling in for Debra Stephens) - They don't believe the county acted in bad faith. Really? As such they don't believe the county should be pay at the high end of the penalty scale. Seems $15.50 a day works for them too. They conclude by stating in their dissent, "We cannot say that "no reasonable person" would have ordered an award of $15 per day in this case. Thus, under true abuse of discretion review, the trial judge here did not abuse his discretion, and his determination should stand."
I figure that means that government can always find a "reasonable" person out there when government needs a ridiculous ruling to bail out their abuse of citizens. I think "reasonable" must mean willing to defend any government wrongdoing for the greater government good.
Posted by: Reality on January 15, 2009 03:30 PMYou can read the findings here:
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.recent
I am furious it takes this long.
We don't all have the kind of resources to fight back when local government mows us down.
The legislature has done a poor job of giving citizens the tools to enforce this process.
Posted by: Andy on January 15, 2009 05:07 PMI just posted a short update at www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com . Interestingly enough, about the time Stefan posted what he did, I was only just learning of the ruling myself. So kudos to Stefan and Sound Politics for being so on top of what's going on and so timely in their reporting.
Thanks again to all of you - and I am really curious who some of you are who have mentioned you've met me over the years. Feel free to email me direct at ayousoufian at comcast.net . I try to respond to all emails, though right now there may be a longer than usual lag/response time.
Armen Yousoufian
www.Yousoufian.blogspot.com
www.ArmenYousoufian.com