ACLU blocks woman's request for data on numbers of transgender inmates in women's prisons | The Post Millennial
In a twist of irony that no screenwriter could have the audacity to add to their movie, the FOI applicant found out how to file FOI requests FROM THE ACLU
This latest move is hardly a surprise from the ideologically captured ACLU, whose head transactivist has called for the stopping of circulation of books he doesn't like:
ACLU lawyer calls for censorship of books that criticize the promotion of transgenderism in children | The Post Millennial
A woman was interested to know how many inmates in Washington state identify as transgender, and how many of those transgender identified inmates have been given transfers to go from men's prison to women's prison, and the reverse. To get this information, she filed a Freedom on Information Act request. Instead of getting the information she requested, she got sued by the ACLU.
To be clear, at no point had this woman contacted the ACLU to tell them she was filing a FOIA. She had used ACLU resources to figure out how to file a FOIA, but that was freely available on their website. The state of Washington is under no obligation to let the ACLU know about every FOIA request they receive, so it remains entirely unclear as to how the ACLU became aware of this woman's FOIA in the first place.
Nonetheless, instead of receiving the information she requested, she received an injunction. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against a private citizen for requesting public records from the Washington State Department of Corrections on the number of inmates in state custody who identify as transgender and the number of male inmates who are housed in women's facilities.
The woman, who didn't want to be named given the sensitive nature of this peculiar situation, submitted her public records request on March 18, 2021.
The Washington Public Records Act guarantees that citizens have the right to access public records, and requires the government to respond to requests within five days. Only personal student or patient information, employee files, and some investigative records are exempt.
Yet by April 8, instead of the information she requested, she received an email that the ACLU of Washington Foundation and Disability Rights Washington, along with their clients "who are current and former transgender, non-binary, and intersex inmates and in the custody of Washington Department of Corrections," had personally named her in a lawsuit to prevent the information she requested from being released.
The email stated, "We have filed for an emergency Temporary Restraining Order and a Motion for Preliminary Injunction to prevent the disclosure of documents you have requested from the Department of Corrections."
In a twist of irony that no screenwriter could have the audacity to add to their movie, the FOI applicant found out how to file FOI requests FROM THE ACLU
"I decided to seek the data myself through public records requests because citizens have a right to know about what the government is doing in our name. I'm appalled that an organization like the ACLU, whose own resources helped me make this request, would try to stop a citizen from exercising their rights."
This latest move is hardly a surprise from the ideologically captured ACLU, whose head transactivist has called for the stopping of circulation of books he doesn't like:
ACLU lawyer calls for censorship of books that criticize the promotion of transgenderism in children | The Post Millennial