Eye On Illinois: FOIA refusal doesn’t infringe an individual’s right to knowledge

Take the guns out of the equation.

Not permanently or anything, but for the purposes of discussion. Because a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling about who has a right to which state records might hit differently if the focus were something other than the Firearm Owners Identification program.

In a unanimous opinion Thursday, the court overturned a circuit court ruling and appellate affirmation by holding that people who want to know why state police denied or revoked their FOID cards cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to gain that knowledge.

In 2011, lawmakers amended the FOIA to make it clear that applications for FOID or concealed carry permits are privileged, private data. Two different Madison County residents filed FOIA requests seeking their own records, and the state police said no, prompting litigation.

The outcome seems pretty obvious – although it does call into question how so many judicial minds got it wrong earlier – but the discussion tends to get heated any time guns and registration are involved, especially given other legal challenges to the state’s administration of the Firearm Owners Identification process.

But take the guns out of the equation. What if it were your driver’s license? What if you jumped through all the hoops to take a road test and failed – but the proctor didn’t say why? Or what if you did get a reason at the time, but forgot or lost the documentation, as these plaintiffs claim? How could you expect to pass a subsequent test with no knowledge of your specific circumstances?

I’ve not filed an FOIA request to see the names and test scores of everyone who tested for a license at my nearest driver services facility, but I can imagine it wouldn’t get very far. Most folks understand there’s a bit of privacy risk whenever we supply details to a government-run database. But whether I turned left on red or failed to stop behind a school bus isn’t the kind of information I’d ever expect someone outside the Secretary of State’s Office to know, unless perhaps it was aggregated with everyone else’s test results after the redaction of individual identifiers.

When the ISP halts an FOID application or revokes a card, the circumstances tend to be serious. Consider Thursday’s column about the Clear and Present Danger reporting system and some of those harrowing details. Preserving privacy in that arena seems essential, but once the FOIA becomes involved, the information could indeed become free, regardless of the requesting party.

The ISP and Supreme Court agree the Firearms Services Bureau can disclose this data to applicants. If that process doesn’t work then lawmakers should step in, through individual influence or group action, but otherwise the case is closed.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.