Location: NE
I’m wondering to what extent legislative privilege can extend to others. Nebraska recently voted to legalize medical marijuana, and our Attorney General, a former lawmaker, has been fighting tooth and nail to invalidate the ballot measure in court and get all forms of THC banned in the state.
I submitted a public records request for their office’s communications with a local lawmaker who introduced a bill banning THC, which the AG publicly supported and I suspect was consulted at some point in drafting.
The AG’s office confirmed responsive records, but denied my request in its entirety citing “Records which represent the work product of an attorney and the public body involved which are related to preparation for litigation, labor negotiations, or claims made by or against the public body or which are confidential communications” as well as stating that “legislative privilege for records obtained or prepared on behalf of Senator… involving the legislative process as another basis to withhold the responsive records.”
As I understand it, one of the purposes of legislative privilege is to protect lawmakers from liability in their duties, but it’s also meant to prevent interference from other branches of government in the lawmaking process.
How could either of these reasons be applicable here?
Comments
Another reason for the privilege is to permit robust, frank discussions of proposed legislation. Which is most certainly applicable here.