In Louisiana, “on the final day of the session, lawmakers . . . crafted language behind closed doors and slipped it into another bill, giving the governor a new public records limitation that only allows Louisiana residents to request public records from his office,” according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.. “A requester will have to provide identification to demonstrate state residency.” The bill was adopted by a 79-19 vote in the House and had unanimous support in the Senate.

Gov. Jeff Landry had not yet signed the bill, but is expected to, given his prior support of the idea.

The justification offered for the new law is that the governor’ office is receiving far too many requests for information to handle given the resources it has, though Sen. Gary Carter,  pointed out the Legislature gave the governor’s office an additional $1 million to hire more lawyers to work on public records requests, According to an article in The Louisiana Illuminator, which went on to quote Carter as saying ‘It seems like we’ve given [Landry’s office] the resources they need to have a response to these public records requests.”  

As the Illuminator explained “The legislation received pushback primarily from Democrats, who raised concerns it could inhibit national investigative journalism. Louisiana and its criminal justice system are often the target of in-depth investigations that bring the nation’s attention to a state with the highest incarceration rate. 

“Private citizens, watchdog groups and various advocacy organizations — all with a variety of political leanings — use public records requests and are likely to be hampered by the new law.”

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