The Appellate Division recently upheld the denial of an OPRA request for the name of a State Trooper who had been discharged for misconduct. Libertarians for Transparent Govt v. NJ State Police.

This unpublished opinion applied settled law here; there’s simply no question that OPRA prohibits public disclosure of this confidential personnel information. What’s notable about this case is that it provides another example of an ongoing problem I’ve noted previously: some requestors seem to think that OPRA overrides legitimate personal privacy interests.

The requestor here, the Libertarians for Transparent Government organization, seems dedicated to getting a court to declare that OPRA’s personnel exemption is void, at least with regard to law enforcement officers. It argued in this case that OPRA’s exemption for disciplinary information should not apply to law enforcement. And the Appellate Division rejected this group’s similar effort to disregard personnel privacy in another OPRA case last year, involving a prosecutor’s office employee.