'You can’t make up law': Louisiana gov draws scathing rebuke for denying records requests

In Louisiana, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has been making a concerted effort to curtail access to public records — access that, Landry claimed, has been "weaponized to stifle deliberative speech."

The Times-Picayune's Andrea Gallo examines that effort in an article published on August 5.

"A review of Landry's first five months as governor shows that in nearly a quarter of all public-records requests his office fielded, his attorneys withheld records by citing deliberative process or executive privilege," Gallo reports. "The documents they withheld for those reasons included records related to Landry's attempts to expand the death penalty, records dealing with the Louisiana National Guard's deployment to Mexico and records related to Landry's travel."

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Terry Ryder, a senior attorney to three former Louisiana governors, is among the critics of Landry's efforts to limit access to public records.

Ryder told the Times-Picayune, "You just can't make up law. There's no such thing as executive privilege or deliberative process privilege if it's not in law."

Former Louisiana State Rep. Barry Ivey, a Republican, is another Landry critic. Ivey requested records from Landry's administration, but his request was denied on executive privilege grounds.

Ivey told the Times-Picayune, "You have to be concerned when the executive branch wants to make sweeping changes to public records. That has to be a red flag for anyone concerned about accountability and government. Partisanship isn't even part of it."

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Read the full Times-Picayune article at this link (subscription required).