County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court of Santa Clara County

This writ proceeding raises weighty questions of first impression, which illuminate tensions between federal homeland security provisions and our state’s open public record laws. This proceeding also requires us to consider a state law exemption allowing nondisclosure in the public interest; the impact of copyright claims on disclosure; and the extent to which charges for electronic public records may exceed reproduction costs. After analyzing these important and novel issues, we conclude that the law calls for unrestricted disclosure of the information sought here, subject to the payment of costs to be determined by the trial court.

INTRODUCTION

The writ proceeding before us was instituted by the County of Santa Clara and its executive, Peter Kutras, Jr. (collectively, the County). The County seeks extraordinary relief from a superior court order filed in May 2007, requiring it to disclose its geographic information system “basemap” to the real party in interest, California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC). Having stayed the 2007 order, we issued an order to show cause in March 2008, to which CFAC and the County responded.

The County’s petition in this court rests on…