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Losing a 5-year-long Illinois FOIA lawsuit for database schemas

Thomas Ptacek, a friend and expert witness in this lawsuit summed it up best in the court's hallway while walking within three feet of opposing counsel: "This is fucking stupid". His companion post explains why.

Better Government Association did a good explainer of the consequences of that loss, which boils down to a significant broadening of public agencies' leeway to apply exemptions (i.e., withhold records or redact information) in response to FOIA requests. While we were waiting for the trial date, Kate LeFurgy, Director of Comms for the Office of the Mayor, reached out to me and asked if I could help with some parking ticket analysis (for free). For instance, in 2018, when I requested parking ticket data from the Department of Finance, their FOIA officer told me that they could not include both license plates and the vehicles' registered address.

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