On January 27, the Appellate Division issued an opinion holding that OPRA requests themselves are government records that are publicly accessible under OPRA. Whether OPRA requests are confidential had never been previously addressed by the Appellate Division. Scheeler v. Office of the Governor.

The court rejected the State’s argument that there is a blanket exemption under OPRA for OPRA requests. However, the court recognized that there may be cases where specific requests could be confidential, on the basis of the privacy exemption or the competitive advantage exemption.