California Supreme Court Decision Expands Public's Right to Access Government-held Digitally-formatted Data

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Author: by Sabrina Venskus*
• Publication year: 2014
• Citation: Vol. 23 No. 1

California Supreme Court Decision Expands Public's Right to Access Government-Held Digitally-Formatted Data

by Sabrina Venskus*

INTRODUCTION

The California Supreme Court issued a landmark decision clarifying that the California Public Records Act ("CPRA") allows the public access to government-held electronic data in Sierra Club v. Superior Court (2013) 57 Cal.4th 157 ("Sierra Club"). The issue before the Court was whether Real Party in Interest County of Orange's land parcel database in an electronic Geographic Information System ("GIS") format must be provided to the public, upon request, pursuant to the CPRA.

The Court reversed the trial court and Court of Appeal, unanimously ruling that a land parcel database in an electronic GIS format is a "public record" and therefore must be provided to a requestor subject to the CPRA's terms. Thus, Orange County was required to produce its land parcel database upon request at the actual cost of duplication, here the price of a DVD. In its decision, the high court supplemented its usual approach to interpreting a statute by utilizing a rule of statutory construction unique to laws involving government-held information, like the CPRA. That rule, found in the California Constitution, provides that the "people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business . . . .A statute, court rule, or other authority . . . .shall be broadly construed if it furthers the people's right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access."¹

While this provision has been part of the California Constitution for nearly a decade,² courts had generally not applied this constitutional mandate to aid in statutory construction. Rather, the constitutional mandate was either mentioned in passing; disregarded altogether; or acknowledged in support of a court's given statutory interpretation.³ However, in arriving at its decision in Sierra Club, the Supreme Court gave unprecedented full effect and meaning to the constitutional amendment, characterizing it as a canon of statutory construction,⁴ which should be used for purposes of interpreting the CPRA.

What Is GIS Data?⁵

GIS data, used all over the world, is an essential component of an information technology system that manipulates digital information to formulate geo-spatial relationships. GIS, a "layering" technology, integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS allows the user "to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts."⁶ For instance, the U.S. EPA uses it to "assist in understanding the complex interrelationships of natural resources and human population as they relate to potential or known pollution sources."⁷

(Diagram by Kenneth E. Foote and Margaret Lynch, The Geographer's Craft Project, Department of Geography, The University of Colorado at Boulder, accessed at http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/intro/intro.html.)

Land parcel GIS data, the type of data at issue in Sierra Club, is created and maintained by California county governments. This specific type of GIS data is "land parcel geometry and associated descriptive attributes (such as Assessor's Parcel Number, site address, owner, valuation and tax information)" and is "organized, stored, analyzed, and displayed in computer database files using GIS software."⁸ Most significantly, land parcel GIS data provides the essential "base layer" of data upon which other types of publicly-available GIS data can be overlaid using GIS software available on the open market. This overlaying of other GIS data upon the base-layer allows a person "to perform a computer-assisted analysis of those datasets in ways that are simply not possible without the base layer...."⁹ Thus, land parcel GIS data is often the most important layer of information in a geographical mapping system.

Sierra Club Case Factual Background and Procedural History

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In 2007, the Sierra Club engaged in an open space preservation campaign in Orange County, which included identifying parcels that may be available for preservation. To locate and map open space, the Sierra Club requested a copy of Orange County's land parcel database in GIS electronic file-format known as the "OC Landbase" pursuant to the CPRA. Using the OC Landbase, "a user with appropriate software can create a layered digital map containing information for over 640,000 specific parcels of land in Orange County, including geographic boundaries, assessor parcel numbers, street addresses, and links to additional information on the parcel owners."¹⁰

Orange County refused to provide the OC Landbase in GIS electronic format unless the Sierra Club paid a $375,000 licensing fee and signed an end-user agreement. Orange County claimed it was not required to produce the OC Landbase in GIS electronic form because it was exempt pursuant to the CPRA's "software exception." The "software exception," found in Government Code Section 6254.9, provides that computer software developed by a state or local agency is not itself a "public record" under the CPRA, and therefore not subject to disclosure under any circumstance. However, Orange County agreed to provide the Sierra Club the information contained in the OC Landbase, but only in paper or pdf electronic format for the cost of duplication.¹¹ Neither formats were useful to Sierra Club because neither paper copies nor pdf files can be displayed or analyzed by the Sierra Club's GIS software.

The trial court denied the Sierra Club's petition for writ of mandate challenging the County's interpretation of the CPRA and its failure to provide the data in the electronic format requested. The Fourth District Court of Appeal similarly denied the Sierra Club's petition, finding that the OC Landbase was "software" and thus excepted from...