Right-to-Know Law – Case Law Wire

Pennsylvania Administrative Law Right-to-Know Law Trade Secret

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

PA Department of Revenue v. Tellerinio — Lottery Ticket VIRN Numbers Are Trade Secrets Exempt from Right-to-Know Disclosure Even After Prize Claims

/ July 15, 2026

The Commonwealth Court reversed the Office of Open Records and held that Pennsylvania Lottery ticket VIRN numbers (Validation Information Record Numbers) are trade secrets exempt from Right-to-Know Law disclosure under Section 708(b)(11), even though individual numbers are revealed to winning ticket holders at the time of claiming a prize. The court reasoned that compiling thousands of claimed VIRN numbers produces a recognizable pattern from which Scientific Games’ proprietary validation algorithm could be reconstructed — making the aggregated dataset a trade secret that ‘reveals’ the algorithm even if isolated numbers do not.

Pennsylvania Administrative Law Appellate Procedure Right-to-Know Law

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Uncategorized

Wilkins v. Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General — OOR Lacks Jurisdiction Over RTKL Appeals from OAG Denials

/ June 28, 2026

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the dismissal of a Right-to-Know Law appeal from an OAG denial, holding that the Office of Open Records has no jurisdiction over such appeals because Section 503(d)(1) of the RTKL expressly requires the Attorney General to designate its own appeals officer, a jurisdictional carve-out analogous to the one applicable to judicial agencies.

New York Civil Rights Constitutional Right-to-Know Law

Appellate Division, Third Department

Uncategorized

Matter of New York Civil Liberties Union v. New York State Police — Third Department Orders Individualized FOIL Review of Officer Misconduct Spreadsheet

/ June 27, 2026

The Appellate Division, Third Department held that the State Police must individually review and justify each redaction in its officer misconduct spreadsheet rather than applying a blanket personal-privacy exemption, while upholding FOIL counsel fee awards for the agency’s unreasonable denial.

Pennsylvania Administrative Law Right-to-Know Law Statutory Interpretation

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Uncategorized

Noto v. Luzerne County — Right-to-Know Law Permits Market-Value Fees for Complex County Data Sets

/ June 11, 2026

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, sitting en banc, upheld Luzerne County’s $10,100 fee for bulk CAMA property assessment data, holding that Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law permits market-value-based fees for complex data sets — not merely the cost of duplication — and that coordinating pricing information across counties does not constitute bad faith.