阿肯色州州长萨拉·哈克比·桑德斯(Sarah Huckabee Sanders)推动全面改革该州广泛的公共记录法的努力在她本周召集的特别立法会议开始时受挫，共和党领导人周一晚间修改了一项法案，以实施她的变革，因为桑德斯说此举是关于安全和政府效率的，她面临着对这个问题的批评，甚至来自她的党内。
桑德斯周五宣布举行为期三天的特别会议，也是为了解决减税问题和防止潜在的新冠肺炎授权。目前，该州因涉嫌隐瞒与她根据阿肯色州信息自由法(Arkansas Freedom of Information Act)申请的旅行有关的信息而面临诉讼。
提起诉讼的人认为这个时间不是巧合。
马特·坎贝尔(Matt Campbell)是小石城的一名律师，也是进步博客“蓝猪报告”(Blue Hog Report)的创始人。9月5日，他对为州长提供安全保障的阿肯色州警方提起诉讼，此前他表示，该机构未能提供他要求桑德斯乘坐的一些航班的乘客名单。
阿肯色州的一名巡回法官计划在周四上午审理坎贝尔的案件，他认为这是“有史以来最容易、最直接的FOIA胜利”。但坎贝尔说，他不确定如果立法者在此之前通过公共记录法的豁免提案，他的案件是否会受到影响。
“我认为他们意识到这场官司他们会输。所以他们想，‘我们现在需要尝试改变规则，’”坎贝尔告诉美国广播公司新闻，他说他在过去的政府中要求飞行日志，但没有面临同样的反对。
如今，将豁免范围扩大到公众可以查阅的与州长政府相关的记录的努力，让一些看似不可能的盟友走到了一起。民主党人已经表达了与普拉斯基县共和党人和萨林县共和党委员会以及保守团体美国繁荣协会的担忧。
"为什么我们要满足于这个国家最红的州的透明度降低?"盐水县共和党人在周末的脸书邮报上问道。“为什么我们这么多共和党立法者盲目地支持这项法案，这与我们自己的党纲背道而驰?”他们补充说星期一。
2023年5月2日，阿肯色州州长萨拉·哈克比·桑德斯在加利福尼亚州贝弗利山举行的米尔肯研究所全球会议上发表讲话。
帕特里克·t·法伦/法新社
桑德斯说，这次改革旨在使该州的公共记录法现代化，并解决她的三个学龄儿童的安全问题，同时提高政府的效率。
她的办公室指出，根据拟议的变化，州警察将被要求提交一份文件，支出由州长的细节每个季度。
桑德斯的发言人Alexa Henning在给ABC新闻的一份声明中说:“关于这项法案的大量错误信息和谎言是左翼活动分子的典型特征。”“州长是第一位需要特勤局保护的白宫新闻秘书，因为她的生命受到可信的威胁，一些左翼人士正在将FOIA武器化，将州长和她的家人置于危险之中。”
坎贝尔说，州警察拒绝了他在FOIA的请求，因为他认为一项法令不适用，但该机构在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻，他寻求的东西将“违反ASP确保州长和第一家庭安全的法定义务”
根据坎贝尔在诉讼中引用的电子邮件，警方对他进行了同样的辩护。
FOIA提倡声音警报
与此同时，阿肯色州新闻协会，警告提议的改变将“通过屏蔽为影响数百万阿肯色州人的决策提供必要背景的过程，消除让我们的政府负责的能力。”
阿肯色州FOIA特别工作组是一个由州立法机构组建的跨党派工作组，负责审查此类变化。周一上午，该工作组一致投票反对拟议的豁免，并表示应在例行会议上考虑这些变化，届时可以为该法案提供更多时间。
“没有什么比我们的宪法官员的安全更重要，包括我们的州长，但我认为法案的这一部分走得太远了，但就该法案本身的未来可行性而言，其他部分更令人担忧，”小石城的律师约翰·图尔三世(John Tull III)告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“在过去的几年里，申请豁免的数量越来越多，但这使它达到了一个完全不同的水平，”塔尔说。“我确实看到全国上下都在加大努力，试图压制信息自由法案试图实现的透明度。”
桑德斯在加速会议中支持扩大公共记录豁免，这促使坎贝尔等一些批评者将他与佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)相提并论。今年早些时候，就在宣布竞选总统之前，德桑蒂斯签署了一项法案，禁止公众访问他的旅行记录。
佛罗里达州的共和党人表示，这一改变也与安全有关。
提议的修改包括追溯条款
阿肯色州的FOIA于1967年由共和党州长温思罗普·洛克菲勒签署成为法律，是美国此类法律中最透明的之一。
被提议的法规将扩大州长旅行和其他宪法官员的安全细节豁免于法律的范围，并包括一项追溯到6月的条款。2022年1月，桑德斯上任之前。
它还将阻止发布州长办公室和她的内阁秘书之间的“反映通信”的记录，此前的版本更广泛地阻止了州机构“审议过程”的发布，这是一种仿照美国鱼类和野生动物服务局诉塞拉俱乐部公司案中定义的联邦法律的豁免。
此外，该立法将使FOIA诉讼中的公民更难获得律师费，批评人士称，这将阻碍律师接此类案件，也阻碍客户提起诉讼。
民主党众议员阿什利·哈德森(Ashley Hudson)对美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)说，“对于一名共和党州长来说，因为不方便而试图取消这种访问真的有点令人震惊，”他指出，桑德斯在这里的立场不是传统的保守立场。“这将意味着，公民从政府机构和民选官员那里获取某些信息将变得更加困难，如果不是不可能的话，这将使成本大大增加。”
迈克·哈克比的前警察局长也加入进来
前州长迈克·哈克比(Mike Huckabee)手下的阿肯色州警察局长汤姆·马尔斯(Tom Mars)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，当坎贝尔寻求的公共记录请求来到他的办公室时，他会通知州长桑德斯的父亲，“只是作为一个提醒。”
马尔斯说:“我们完全、适当地遵守了所有这些规定，但我从未听到迈克·哈克比或其他任何人表示过任何担忧，即披露有关使用(州警察)飞机、谁在飞机上、飞行了多少小时、飞往何处的信息，有可能给州长或安全团队或他的家人带来安全风险——我认为我没有听到任何人这样说的原因是，任何相反的建议都是荒谬的。”
马斯引用了他自己关于办公室如何通信的经验，认为保留坎贝尔要求的记录的决定可能直接来自桑德斯的办公室，他谴责追溯性地改变法律的努力，认为这标志着承认他们的不法行为。
“信息自由法案一直是阿肯色州伟大的关键组成部分，因为人们有权知道关起门来发生了什么，”马尔斯说。
Sarah Sanders seeks to limit public records law amid suit related to her travel
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' push to overhaul the state's expansive public records law stumbled at the start of a special legislative session she called this week, with Republican leaders late Monday reworking a bill to enact her changes as Sanders, who says the move is about security and government efficiency, faces criticism over the issue -- even from within her party.
A special three-day session Sanders announced on Friday, called also to address tax cuts and prevent potential COVID-19 mandates, comes as a lawsuit pends against the state for allegedly withholding information related to her travel requested under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The man who filed the suit believes the timing isn't a coincidence.
Matt Campbell, an attorney in Little Rock and founder of the progressive blog "Blue Hog Report," filed his complaint on Sept. 5 against the Arkansas State Police, which provides security for the governor, after he says the agency failed to provide passenger manifests that he requested for some of Sanders' flights.
A circuit judge in Arkansas is scheduled to hear Campbell's case -- which he contends is "the easiest, most straightforward FOIA win ever" -- on Thursday morning. But Campbell said he's not sure if his case could be affected should lawmakers pass the proposed exemptions to the public records law before then.
"I think they realized this lawsuit was something they were going to lose. So they thought, 'We need to try to change the rules now,'" Campbell told ABC News, saying he's requested flight logs in past administrations but did not face the same opposition.
The effort to now broaden exemptions to what records the public can access related to the governor's administration has brought together some unlikely allies. Democrats have voiced concerns alongside the Pulaski County Republicans and the Saline County Republican Committee as well as the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.
"Why should we settle for less transparency in the reddest state in the nation?" Saline County Republicans asked in a public Facebook post over the weekend. "Why have so many of our Republican legislators blindly lined up behind this bill, which is contrary to our own party platform?" they added Monday.
Sanders says the overhaul is meant to modernize the state's public records law and address security concerns for her three school-aged children while increasing efficiency in government.
Her office notes that under the proposed changes, state police would be required to submit a document of expenses incurred by the governor's detail each quarter.
"The amount of misinformation and lies being spread about this bill is typical from left wing activists," Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in a statement to ABC News. "The governor was the first White House press secretary to need Secret Service protection due to credible threats against her life and some on the left are weaponizing FOIA putting the Governor and her family at risk."
Campbell says the state police denied his FOIA request because of a statute that he feels doesn't apply, but the agency told ABC News in a statement that what he was seeking would "violate ASP's statutory obligation to ensure the safety and security of the Governor and the First Family."
Police argued the same to Campbell, according to emails he cites in his lawsuit.
FOIA advocates sound alarms
The Arkansas Press Association, meanwhile,warnsthe proposed changes would "eliminate the ability to hold our government accountable by shielding processes that provide essential context for decisions that affect millions of Arkansans."
The Arkansas FOIA Task Force, a bipartisan working group formed by the state Legislature to examine such changes, voted unanimously on Monday morning against proposed exemptions and said the changes should be considered in a regular session, when more time can be given to the bill.
"Nothing is more important than the security of our constitutional officers, including our governor, but I believe that that portion of the bill goes too far, but it's the other portions that are more concerning as far as the future viability of the act itself," John Tull III, an attorney in Little Rock who sits on the task force, told ABC News.
"There's been an increasing amount of requested exemptions over the last few years, but this takes it to an entirely different level," Tull said. "I do see a greater effort across the country to try and squelch the transparency that the Freedom of Information of Acts attempt to accomplish."
Sanders' support for expanding public records exemptions in an expedited session is prompting comparisons from some critics, like Campbell, to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill to shield his travel records from public access earlier this year, just before announcing his bid for president.
Republicans in Florida said that change was about security as well.
Proposed changes include retroactive clause
Arkansas' FOIA was signed into law by 1967 by Republican Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller and is among the most transparent such laws in the nation.
Proposedlegislationwould broaden what security details from the governor's travel and other constitutional officers' are exempt from the law -- and includes a retroactive clause to June. 1, 2022, before Sanders took office.
It would also block the release of records "reflecting communications" between the governor's office and her Cabinet secretaries, after a previous version more broadly blocked the release of state agencies' "deliberative process" -- an exemption modeled after federal law as defined in United States Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, Inc.
Additionally, the legislation would make it harder for citizens in FOIA suits to recover attorney's fees, which critics say will discourage lawyers from taking on such cases and clients from bringing them.
"For a Republican governor to come in and try to gut that access because it's inconvenient is really kind of shocking," Democratic State Rep. Ashley Hudson told ABC News, noting Sanders' position here isn't a traditionally conservative one. "What it'll mean is that it's going to make it a lot harder, if not impossible, for citizens to access certain information from government agencies and elected officials, and it's going to make it a lot more expensive."
Mike Huckabee's former police director weighs in
Tom Mars, who served as Arkansas State Police director under former Gov. Mike Huckabee, told ABC News that when requests for public records like the ones Campbell sought would come to his office, he would inform the governor, Sanders' father, "just as a heads up."
"We fully and properly complied with all those, but I never heard Mike Huckabee or anybody else ever express any concern that the disclosure of information about the use of the [state police] aircraft, who was on the aircraft, how many hours it flew, where it flew, had any potential to create a security risk to the governor or the security team or members of his family -- and I think the reason I didn't hear that from anybody is that any suggestion to the contrary is absurd," Mars said.
Citing his own experience of how the offices correspond, Mars believes the decision to withhold the records that Campbell requested likely came directly from Sanders' office and he condemned the effort to change the law retroactively, arguing it signals an admission of their wrongdoing.
"The Freedom of Information Act has always been a key component of what makes Arkansas great, because people are entitled to know what goes on behind closed doors," Mars said.
