By Sarah Otman
I. INTRODUCTION
The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) rests on a simple premise: government records belong to the public. But that premise collides with one of the law’s oldest protections, the attorney-client privilege. In New York Civil Liberties Union v. New York State Office of Court Administration, the New York Court of Appeals confronted whether the Office of Court Administration (OCA) properly denied a FOIL request for an internal guidance memoranda provided to state judges. The majority and dissent agreed that OCA’s blanket privilege claim fails; they divided on whether remittal serves any purpose once that claim is rejected. Although the Court correctly rejected OCA’s blanket assertion, its decision to remit for document-specific review, rather than order immediate disclosure, reflects the more cautious and institutionally appropriate path for reconciling governmental transparency with confidential legal advice, precisely because it resolves no more than the record before it requires.
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