District Attorneys Are Subject to Georgia Open Records Act, Supreme Court Rules

In a recent unanimous ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court confirmed that District Attorneys are subject to the state’s Open Records Act, thus requiring the disclosure of certain requested records.  

After the Athens-Clarke County District Attorney failed to produce all responsive public records in response to an Open Records Act request, the requestor sued the District Attorney seeking to obtain the requested records and other remedies available under the Open Records Act.  The lawsuit also alleged that the District Attorney directed at least one of her employees to destroy correspondence between the District Attorney and an employee.  The District Attorney moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that “neither she nor her office is subject to the [Open Records Act] because she is a constitutional officer of Georgia’s judicial branch of government, that she is shielded from Miller’s private action under the [Act] by prosecutorial immunity, and that Miller lacks standing to enforce the [Act] claims Miller asserted.”  After the trial court rejected these arguments, the District Attorney appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held that the Open Records Act applies to public records maintained by district attorneys.  In reaching this holding, the Court considered the argument that the Open Records Act applies only to executive branch agencies and not the judicial branch.  The Supreme Court rejected this argument, holding that District Attorneys “exercise executive power because their function is to enforce the law by prosecuting criminal cases,” not judicial power because “district attorneys have no power to decide cases.”  

The Supreme Court also rejected the District Attorney’s argument that the plaintiff lacked standing to bring the case because the plaintiff’s attorney, not the plaintiff, submitted the Open Records Act request.  The Supreme Court also rejected the District Attorney’s argument that “she has absolute prosecutorial immunity from civil liability for private actions arising from the performance of her official duties as District Attorney” because “a district attorney’s prosecutorial immunity applies only to individual-capacity claim.”