Since they started asserting a "privilege" to refuse releasing certain emails and other records to the public, Washington legislators have used the practice to obscure internal debates on some of the state's most pressing concerns — as well as seemingly less controversial topics.
Here are just three examples.
Drug possession
It's difficult to think of an issue of more public interest than Washington's raging public safety and health crisis involving fentanyl and other drugs.
Last year, lawmakers wrestled with a contentious debate on how to address a 2021 state Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the state's felony drug possession law.
A meltdown on the House floor took place on the final day of the 2023 session, with House Democrats bringing a compromise "fix" that would allow for drug possession penalties — only to see it rejected in a dramatic floor vote. (Lawmakers later came back in a special session to pass a law making drug possession a gross misdemeanor.)
Last April, The Seattle Times made a public-records request to House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, seeking emails, texts and other documents about the final-day session debate breakdown.
After initially releasing a limited set of records, the Legislature delayed others for more than six months, and then started asserting "privilege" to almost entirely black out the remaining documents.
The withheld documents include emails among lawmakers and drafts of proposals about what drug possession penalties lawmakers were considering.
Legislative staff unionization
In another subject where lawmakers have asserted privilege to avoid releasing potentially embarrassing emails, the Legislature blocked the disclosure of records related to how Democratic lawmakers were reacting to efforts to allow their staff to form a union.
Jamie Nixon, a former legislative staffer, requested copies of records related to the debate in early 2022. To this day, the Legislature has refused to disclose many of its internal communications on the subject, he said in an interview on Thursday.
Democratic lawmakers appear "terrified" of turning over emails that might show them less than fully supportive of unionization, given the party's public pro-union stance, Nixon said.
Nixon is a plaintiff in the ongoing lawsuit over the Legislature's privilege assertions by the Washington Coalition for Open Government.
Chinese American heritage
Lawmakers also have cited "privilege" to withhold records about an effort, in 2022, to establish a Chinese American history month.
As reported by Crosscut last year, lawmakers blacked out all, or parts of, hundreds of pages of communications about the proposal, which hadn't been viewed as controversial, but stalled out in the Democratic majority House.
A conservative-leaning group called WA Asians 4 Equality had backed the legislation and requested records after it mysteriously was held up.
Nixon, the former legislative staffer, also subsequently requested records about the dust-up, and said lawmakers had still not provided unredacted versions of many records.
