Texas Supreme Court protects state workers' birth dates.

• Position: FOI

Texas residents cannot access the birth dates of state employees through the Public Information Act, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled.

In an important open records decision, the high court agreed with the Texas comptroller over the state attorney general and The Dallas Morning News.

Because "state employees' privacy interest substantially outweighs the minimal public interest in the information, we hold that disclosure of state employee birth dates would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy," wrote Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.

Open-government advocates said they fear the ruling may prevent the public from learning about problems in government, such as employees who have felony records or who have committed serious infractions.

The case began with a 2005 public records request submitted by The News to the comptroller seeking an electronic copy of its state employee payroll database. The office offered details, including full names, ages, genders, salaries, agencies, work addresses, and work hours for employees, but refused to release their birth dates. The state attorney general's office subsequently concluded that the birth dates are public records and there was no proof their release would result in "harmful financial consequences" to state employees, The News reported.

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The comptroller brought a lawsuit to prevent the release of the birth dates. The trial court and the court of appeals both sided with the attorney general and The News.

In its 5-2 decision, however, the Supreme...