Capital Newspapers v. Whalen

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Capital Newspapers vs. Whalen Number: 69 N.Y. 2d 246, 248 Year: 1987 State: New York Court: State of New York Court of Appeals Other lawsuits in New York Other lawsuits in 1987 Precedents include: 1.) Eliminated any considerations of purpose with regards to accepting or denying public records requests. 2.) Personal documents intermingled with public records become public records.

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Deliberative Process Exemption

Capital Newspapers v. Whalen is a 1987 case before the State of New York Court of Appeals concerning the New York Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Important precedents

The court held that documents can be considered public under FOIL regardless of whether the document has a governmental purpose.

The court noted that personal or unofficial documents intermingled with official government files being kept or held by a governmental entity are records covered under FOIL.

Ruling of the court

The court found nothing to suggest that the state legislature, when it passed FOIL, intended a "content-based limitation in defining the term 'record' . . . . Moreover . . . permitting an agency to engage in a unilateral prescreening of those documents which it deems to be outside the scope of FOIL would be inconsistent with [the statute]."