Open Society files suit

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Open Society has filed the following Cort case with the Clerk of the Cort, @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu  concerning the A-X's interpretation of the Second Talossan Government Transparency Act. We believe the interpretation is incorrect and have asked Talossa's judiciary to determine whether this government is not obeying the law.

Tzaracomprada v. Plätschisch

Application for Judicial Review: Lawfulness of the Avocat-Xheneral's interpretation of El Lexhatx D. 8.9, the Second Talossan Government Transparency Act.

Applicant: Breneir Tzaracomprada

The applicant, hereby, petitions the Court to carry out a judicial review over the interpretation of the Avocat-Xheneral on September 9, 2024 pertaining to El Lexhatx D. 8.9 or the Second Talossan Government Transparency Act. The legal advice delivered to the Schiva IV Cabinet concluded that the Government may release previous internal and confidential Government communications before the "seven-year release" period described in El Lexhatx D. 8.9.2.

Facts:
On September 5, 2024 Breneir Tzaracomprada lodged a terpelaziun to the Seneschal concerning the extent to which the current Government is using the Cabinet board on Wittenberg, as follows:
"Tuischach, I rise with a question for the Seneschal. Recent governments have held their deliberations in the Cabinet thread here on Wittenberg which is an eventual archive accessible to the public. Where is the current Cabinet holding its deliberations? And if in multiple areas, to what extent are the deliberations being held in the Wittenberg Cabinet thread?"

On September 7, 2024, the Seneschal, Miestra Schiva responded as follows:
"I thank the Member for his question. When the Cabinet board on Wittenberg was opened to us, we found a note the from the previous Government, where a Cabinet Minister said to his colleagues something along the lines of "this is a permanent record, so don't put anything on here you'll be embarrassed for future Governments to find out". So, we are trying to emulate our predecessors in this regard. The current Cabinet uses this board for substantive discussions, alongside a Discord channel for real-time communication. I have asked Ministers who raise things that are long or substantive in the Discord channel to put them in the Wittenberg board."

In a later comment on September 7, 2024, the Seneschal, Miestra Schiva agreed that the Cabinet board on Wittenberg was indeed confidential with the following statement:
"The Cabinet board is not a "private" board, it is a confidential but official board."

On September 9, 2024, the Avocat-Xheneral issued the following statement in the same thread:
"My legal advice to the rest of the Cabinet is that Lex.D.8.9 does not stipulate that no contents of the cabinet forum may be released until the after the 7-year period. It only stipulates that all of the contents (except contents exempted by D.8.2 - D.8.4) shall be released at that time."

REQUESTED REMEDY:

The applicant seeks a judicial review of the September 9, 2024 interpretation by the Avocat-Xheneral of El Lexhatx D. 8.9. The applicant, as the author of the controlling legislation, contends that both the original intent and plain reading of the text confers privacy and confidentiality on the internal Government discussions until the 7-year period has elapsed. It is the Archivist not the Government of the day which determines the release of these internal Government discussions as mentioned in El Lexhatx D 8.9.2.

The applicant also seeks a determination as to whether the actions of the Seneschal were not in compliance with Lex D. 8.9 when she released the following statement of former Government minister, Baron Alexandreu Davinescu, in her response of September 7, 2024:
"...this is a permanent record, so don't put anything on here you'll be embarrassed for future Governments to find out."