Court Opinion

ID: 9522545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:28:26.796691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:12.543335
License: Public Domain

LEWIS, J., specially concurring: While I agree with the majority that the Freedom of Information Act (the Act) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 116, par. 201 et seq.) should be available to a government only as a shield from requests for information from the citizenry rather than to be used as a sword by the government to block legitimate requests for information, I believe that we should construe section 7(lXa) and answer the City of Carbon-dale’s assertion that the gag order is “State law,” and thus information prohibited to be disclosed by the gag order is exempt under the Act. Further, one might misinterpret the majority opinion as saying that a government cannot make any effort in court to prevent disclosure of information that is shielded by the Act or else such information would become nonexempt. I am sure that the majority opinion is not intended to prohibit a government from actively defending and legitimately shielding itself from disclosure of information exempted under the Act. The city argues that Debolt v. Mutual of Omaha (1978), 56 Ill. App. 3d Ill, 371 N.E.2d 373, holds that court orders are law and thus become “State law” under the Act. Debolt might correctly hold that court orders are law, but it takes a giant leap in logic to conclude that the legislature intended under section 7(lXa) of the Act that court orders were the type of “State law” the legislature had in mind. Debolt points out: “[W]e do not deem the making of law by judicial decree to be a desirable practice per se but should be limited to instances when humanitarian needs dictate the necessity of judicial action or when legislative bodies for an unreasonably long time refuse to enact statutory law for the purpose of coping with an enduring and festering problem.” (Debolt v. Mutual of Omaha, 56 Ill. App. 3d at 116-17, 371 N.E.2d at 378.) It is difficult to comprehend how the need for and the creation of the torts of intentional infliction of severe emotional distress or retaliatory discharge by the courts would justify the transmutation of improper gag orders into “State law,” thereby becoming an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act. The city’s argument leads to a variation of the Catch 22 situation: The city requests a gag order to prohibit a citizen from validly obtaining information. The trial judge protests and says that such an order is improper and illegal under the Act. The city attorney then tells the judge: “All you have to do to make the order legal is to sign the order and your improper and illegal order becomes ‘State law’ and legal.” If one were to carry this argument to the extreme, all information regarding the affairs of government would be legally exempt from disclosure as long as the government could find a judge to sign an order prohibiting disclosure. Finally, the city’s argument prevents review by the appellate courts as to the correctness of the trial judge issuing the gag order in the first instance. If the gag order is “State law,” how could this court invalidate the law (excluding constitutional grounds) regardless of how wrong the law or court order may be? The Act is very clear that information specifically prohibited by Federal or State law is exempted and thus the appellate courts would be at a loss for grounds to overturn a “State law.” The legislature would surely be surprised to learn that every time a statute contained the words “State law” it included all trial court orders construing such. If we were to follow the city’s reasoning, the legislature would have to make a specific exclusion of court orders every time it used the words “State law”; otherwise, the courts could rewrite the legislation any way the courts deemed best. I am sure that the relations between the judiciary and the legislature would not be ameliorated by such a ruling. Our holding should be that “State law” as used in section 7(l)(a) of the Act does not include court gag orders.