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Wisconsin Assembly Bill Would Limit Online Access to Public Records

October 9th, 2009 admin No comments

The free and unfettered access enjoyed to the public records available on Wisconsin Circuit Court Access may soon be limited, thanks to Wisconsin Assembly Bill 340.  Jack Zemlicka discusses the bill in an article from the Wisconsin Law Journal.  Apparently, the bill would require an access fee for most users, and would limit information available online.  There’s not an argument that the information isn’t public or that it shouldn’t be accessible, just, apparently, that it shouldn’t be so easily accessible.  The price tag for making the information more difficult to obtain:  $500,000.

When the whole world is heading the other direction, I wish it were more surprising that some in government want citizens to have less, rather than more, access to public records.