Mayor Emanuel’s FOIA policy: Don’t ask because we won’t tell

As a result, the attorney general’s office ruled it can’t force CPS to turn anything over because “a public body’s determination that it has no documents responsive to a FOIA request is a permissible basis for denying such request.”

In short, case closed.

Well, with all due respect to the lawyers in Lisa Madigan’s office, this might just be the worst case of examination I’ve seen since Austin Pendleton’s stuttering lawyer in My Cousin Vinny.

CPS officials didn’t answer the questions Madigan’s office asked them. They were asked point blank if the documents ever existed, and they responded that they haven’t maintained them. Which is not the same thing as saying the documents never existed at all.

“That is what lawyers would call a nonresponsive answer,” says Jeffrey P. Smith, a public interest attorney who’s battled his hometown of Evanston on more than one records issue over the years. “The AG didn’t ask CPS if they maintained the information—they asked if they ever had it.”

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