When New Jersey lawmakers revamped the state Open Public Records Act two years ago, one of the worst provisions they inserted allows public entities to sue people for filing too many records requests.
At the time, critics like myself worried this would lead some public agencies, especially those who think a single records request is a form of harassment, to target citizens seeking legitimate knowledge about the way their government functions.
Sure enough, Cherry Hill’s school district is doing just that. It has sued a city resident, journalist Ben Shore, and wants to ban him from filing records requests with the district for one year because of his “numerous, repeated and vexatious OPRA requests.”…