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Florida judge rules against blogger

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November 11, 2009

HALLANDALE BEACH, Florida: On November 4, 2009, Patti Englander Henning, a judge of the Florida 17th Circuit Court, ruled in favor of the City of Hallandale Beach in a case the city had brought against blogger Mike Butler.

The city sued Butler after he submitted a request for records to the city under the Florida Sunshine Law.[1][2]

Butler wanted a list of recipients of an email sent by Mayor Joy Cooper on February 17, 2009 from her personal America Online account. The subject line of the e-mail was "Mayor Cooper's Update." The e-mail included attachments to three columns written by Cooper for a weekly community newspaper addressing city policies. The e-mail included Cooper's city hall address and phone number. These characteristics of the e-mail led Butler to conclude that the e-mail was a public document, even though it had been sent on Cooper's personal email account.[1]

The city responded with a lawsuit against Butler. On November 4, 2009, Judge Henning ruled in favor of the city.[3]

Butler characterized the ruling from Henning as "shocking" and said that it runs counter to an advisory opinion issued in 2007 from Bill McCollum, Florida's attorney general, which says that e-mails from public officials "that are intended to communicate, perpetuate or formalize knowledge" are public records, regardless of whether or not they are sent using a public or governmental e-mail address.

Mayor Cooper said, "You're under the assumption that he's a good guy and he's the victim. But the victim is the city commission. I feel like my privacy has been raped."[1]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sun Sentinel, "Score another win for weirdness in Hallandale," October 26, 2009
  2. ↑ Sun Sentinel, "Hallandale fights blogger seeking mayor's e-mail list," April 20, 2009
  3. ↑ Sun Sentinel, Text of "City of Hallandale Beach v. Michael Butler"

Florida courts

Federal courts:

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Florida, Southern District of Florida

State courts:

Florida Supreme Court • Florida District Courts of Appeal • Florida Circuit Court • Florida County Court

State resources:

Courts in Florida • Florida judicial elections • Judicial selection in Florida

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