The Goldwater Institute (GI) filed an amicus curiae brief in court on Tuesday demanding that the Department of Justice reveal how Maricopa County taxpayers’ money is being spent monitoring the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). During the Obama administration, the federal government asserted that MCSO under then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio was racially profiling suspects, and set up a monitoring agreement with MCSO.
GI submitted the brief after Maricopa County filed a motion asking a judge to reconsider the agreement, which has been in place since 2013. A 2014 order prevents information about the monitoring from being released to the public.
“Arpaio left office in 2016, however, and three sheriffs and more than 10 years later the department has reformed many of the policies that gave rise to the lawsuit,” GI said. “[T]he government should not be allowed to keep such information secret unless there’s good reason, and even then, they’re required to specify what those reasons are. The court in this case has never done so — and even if it had, circumstances have changed in the decade since the lawsuit began.”
GI said it submitted multiple requests for the monitoring information, but all were denied. GI cited several cases in its brief in favor of disclosing the information. “Courts typically presume that the public has a right to access case records, and that presumption can only be rebutted “‘in light of the relevant facts and circumstances of the particular case,’” GI said, citing DePuy Synthes Prods., Inc. v. Veterinary Orthopedic Implants, Inc.
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