TAP files FOIA request for JURIS records

[James Love <love@essential.org>]

Taxpayer Assets Project
Information Policy Note
October 12, 1993

     CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - JURIS

     TAP FILES FOIA REQUEST FOR JURIS CASELAW RECORDS

     On October 12, 1993, the Taxpayer Assets Project filed a request
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for copies of federal
judicial opinions that were supplied to the Department of Justice (DOJ)
by West Publishing under a contract to supply data to the DOJ Justice
Retrieval and Inquiry System (JURIS).

     The FOIA request will lead to a test of DOJ's ability to contract
away the public right to receive public records that are stored on
government computers.  Under its contract with DOJ, West provides the
Government with valued added editorial materials, such as West
headnotes, as well as public documents, such as federal judicial
opinions.  West claims that it can copyright the "arrangement" of the
judicial opinions, even though the opinions themselves are not subject
to copyright.

     TAP is not asking for copies of the West value added materials.
TAP is asking for copies of the judicial opinions themselves, which are
public documents.

     The following is an excerpt from the TAP foia request.

                         ------------------------
October 12, 1993

Steven R. Colgate
Assistant Attorney General for Administration
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC  20530


Re:  Freedom of Information Request


Dear Mr. Colgate:

     This letter is a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA).

THE RECORDS WHICH ARE REQUESTED

     On behalf of the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP), I am asking for
data which is part of the Justice Retrieval and Inquiry System (JURIS).
Specifically, we are requesting copies of the full text of judicial
opinions which were provided to the Department of Justice (DOJ) by West
Publishing, under a contract to supply legal information for the JURIS
database.

     Under the DOJ/West contract, West provided DOJ with federal
judicial opinions and other value added products, such as West
"headnotes."  We are not asking for copies of West editorial products
such as the West headnotes.  We are only asking for copies of the
judicial opinions, which are public documents and not subject to
copyright.

     According to our copy of the DOJ/West contact, the JURIS database
is structured so that the judicial opinions are separated from the West
headnotes in different database fields, so it should be straightforward
to extract the information which we request.

THE PURPOSE OF THE REQUEST

     TAP is engaged in analysis of a wide range of public policy issues,
and needed to obtain access to federal caselaw to conduct our research.
We are also exploring ways of providing this data to citizen groups,
academic researchers and other data users over the Internet.

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Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC  20036
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