NEFAC’s expert testimony appears in news media across the country and its advocacy attracts considerable press coverage. Below are links to stories featuring our work and commentary. Need a source for your story? Email justin@nefac.org.
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Lewiston Mayor Hopes to Shorten City Council Meetings By Reducing Public Comment Time
WGME 3.16.26
The executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition says its a balancing act but people should always be given time to express their opinions. “You also need to provide an opportunity to everyone in the community to provide their opinions on very important topics,” executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition Justin Silverman said.
‘One of the Worst Offenders’: Why It’s Hard to Get Public Records From the Mass. State Police
MassLive 3.15.26
The State Police are “one of the worst offenders when it comes to the Massachusetts public records law,” said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition. “They are known for their secrecy and the lack of response that they give to public records requests.” . . . Sometimes the supervisor’s decision can provide leverage to obtain records, Silverman said. “But a lot of times it’s not very helpful because these aren’t binding decisions that can be enforced,” he said. That leaves people with two options: file a lawsuit, or hope that the Attorney General’s Office will pursue the case, which is rare. “That’s the biggest flaw,” Silverman said, “that when the law isn’t being followed, there isn’t a lot of recourse for the requester to push back and get the information that they’re seeking.” . . . The issue indicates larger concerns in the state’s public records law, Silverman said. “The problems that we see with the State Police, not all of them are unique to that agency,” he said. “Where it’s more concerning, when you have State Police involved, is that it’s a law enforcement agency with a lot more power than other public agencies, and secrecy in that case can be far more detrimental.” . . . To help increase access to public records, the New England First Amendment Coalition launched a legal fund last year with funding from the Knight Foundation. It supports journalism and open government litigation. Silverman, NEFAC’s executive director, said he thinks daily about how to communicate the importance of public records access to the public. “It’s our money, our tax dollars that are supporting these agencies, and they need to be working on our behalf,” he said. “There’s no way we can know if they are working in our best interest if they don’t provide the transparency that’s required by the law. … Everybody has an interest in transparency and a stake in how our tax dollars are being spent.”
Can Maine School Boards Restrict Free Speech During Public Comment? (video)
WMTW 3.14.26
First Amendment attorney and New England First Amendment Coalition President Gregory V. Sullivan described that type of rule as a “civility clause,” saying it is very common within school board and city council policies. “Although civility is to be encouraged, it cannot be required,” Sullivan said. Sullivan said these types of policies are vague and unreasonable. Determining what is vulgar, offensive or defamatory can be subjective. “Who’s to say what is defamatory and what is not? That’s not the job of a school board, for example. It’s the job generally of a jury or a judge,” Sullivan said. If a school board member or teacher believes a public comment is defamatory, Sullivan said they can pursue a defamation claim afterward. “There is no more important protection of speech than when the citizenry is criticizing governmental officials,” he said. “That’s what the First Amendment is all about.”
SJC Rules Charter Schools Must Comply with Public Records Law
The Boston Globe 3.11.26
“We need to know how our schools operate and whether they are making the best use of our tax dollars,” Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said in an email. “Today’s decision makes it easier for us to do so. It’s a win for the public’s right to know.”
Priced Out: FOI Requesters Sound the Alarm as Hourly FOIA Fees May Be Coming to Connecticut
Inside Investigator 3.8.26
Justin Silverman, the executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC), told Inside Investigator, “the ability to charge requesters a fee for their time is often abused by public agencies who will quote a completely unreasonable amount of money to fulfill a records request that is completely prohibitive.” In other states in New England that allow hourly fees to be charged, Silverman said they see “a lot of requesters asking for info they should be receiving that are scared away by unreasonable cost estimates.” . . . Silverman also noted that, in other New England states that allow hourly fees to be charged, policies often allow for the first few hours of work to be provided for free. . . . “That’s the tension here between government’s ability to provide a service in a cost efficient way and the public’s right to know,” Silverman told Inside Investigator. “I’m not endorsing any fees for requesters, but if the law were to change, there would have to be some sort of safety net built in for requesters, where agencies wouldn’t have the license to quote astronomical sums of money just to scare away the requester.” “That’s the situation we’re often seeing in other states and that’s what at risk in Connecticut,” Silverman added.
‘They Don’t Even Pretend to Comply’: Mass. Agencies, Cities, and Towns Openly Flout Open Record Law
The Boston Globe 3.4.26
Ultimately, there’s no way for anyone to know how often state agencies and local governments in Massachusetts ignore requests or fail to follow the law. Nor is there any way of knowing how many requesters are stymied by bureaucratic stonewalling, and simply give up. “We are working in the dark,” said Justin Silverman of the New England First Amendment Coalition.
Bill Restricting Public Information Requests Moves Forward
Union Leader 3.3.26
During a public hearing last month, Mark Hayward, representing the New England First Amendment Coalition, said the restriction would deny many legitimate requests such as a non-resident driver seeking records about law enforcement practices, someone outside New Hampshire considering property purchases in the state or a business deciding whether to locate in New Hampshire. In 2024, then-Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law (HB 1002) that for the first time allowed governmental bodies to charge money — not just for the material costs of copies, but for staff time to process voluminous document requests. The news media was exempt from the change as were the first 250 communications of any request. Hayward urged lawmakers to see if that law helped cope with these out-of-state data mining demands.
Maine Considers Automatically Sealing Thousands of Low-Level Criminal Records
Maine Morning Star 2.26.26
Sigmund Schutz of Preti Flaherty — on behalf of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, New England First Amendment Coalition and Maine Press Association — pointed to First Circuit and Supreme Court precedent when making the case that LD 1911 would violate the U.S. Constitution. It “imposes automatic restrictions on public access to criminal convictions without any case-by-case determinations by a judicial officer,” which courts have held is needed to determine “a compelling governmental interest sufficient to overcome the public’s First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings.” Schutz offered an alternative. “If existing protections against criminal history discrimination are insufficient, then they could be broadened or penalties for discrimination could be made more severe,” Schutz said. “This would be a better alternative than automatically sealing entire categories of public judicial records.”
‘Gag Order’: State Police Reroute Comms Through Colonel’s Office
Inside Investigator 2.18.26
“What’s being imposed here is a gag order, plain and simple.” Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Center (NEFAC), said of the policy’s restriction on sworn CSP members speaking to the media. While Silverman said more information about the policy, including whether there are consequences for violating it, is needed, similar types of restrictions on public employees’ speech are often found unconstitutional under the First Amendment because they impose prior restraint. Prior restraint occurs when government prohibits speech before it occurs. “The First Amendment protects the ability, in this case of police, to speak openly and candidly about their experiences. Any policy that prevents them from doing so and restricts the ability of journalists to have conversations with those employees raises many red flags.” Silverman said.
Maine Lawmakers Consider Bill to Seal Criminal Records 5-10 Years After Date of Conviction (video)
WGME 2.6.26
The New England First Amendment Coalition says while the bill’s intentions are good, there are other ways to protect the rights of former inmates. “What’s being proposed here is unconstitutional. It violates our First Amendment right to these judicial records,” Justin Silverman of the New England First Amendment Coalition said.
Mass. Officials Began Seizing Homes for a New Cape Bridge. They Won’t Say How Much They’re Paying for Them
The Boston Globe 2.5.26
The public’s ability to determine whether the eminent domain process is happening fairly depends on state officials being transparent, said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition. “There’s no room for secrecy in this process,” Silverman said, adding that even if information on the payouts can legally be withheld, “that doesn’t necessarily make it good policy.” “You have a very expensive, high-profile project where families are having their homes taken,” he said. “The state should be doing everything within its power to be as transparent as possible given all the interests at stake here.”
Bill Would Limit Right-to-Know Requests to Residents
InDepthNH 2.3.26
Mark Hayward of the New England First Amendment Coalition spoke in opposition to the bill. “Let’s say someone from Massachusetts gets pulled over when he might believe he shouldn’t have been,” Hayward said. “Maybe there wasn’t probable cause. He should be able to file a right-to-know request and see if his assumption was correct.” Hayward gave another example of a Maine resident who wants to buy property in New Hampshire and wants to know about neighboring properties, selling issues or any disputes regarding the property. Hayward also noted that there are only a handful of states in the country that limit public record laws to residents. The committee did not take any immediate action on the bill.
EMS Gadfly or Journalist? Brattleboro Officials Debate First Amendment Protections (video)
WCAX 2.3.26
Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said such ordinances face constitutional challenges. “If they are passed at all, they are very quickly challenged and usually found unconstitutional,” Silverman said. “The right to record, the right to document what is going on in our communities, isn’t just a right for journalists, it’s a right for all of us.”
RWU Journalism Student Participates in 2025 Gloria L. Negri First Amendment Institute
Roger Williams University 2.3.26
Addison Mason, a Journalism major from Atkinson, N.H., was one of just seven students selected to participate in the 25th annual Negri Institute, held in October at Boston University. The highly competitive fellowship brings together emerging and established journalists from across New England to deepen their understanding of First Amendment principles and contemporary reporting practices. . . . Offered by the New England First Amendment Coalition, the intensive, weekend-long program featured academic presentations, networking sessions, and in-depth discussions with journalists, editors, and professors. Fellows explored topics including press freedom, ethical reporting, and the evolving role of journalism in a changing media landscape.
Police Officer Resigns Amid Allegations of Relationship with Vulnerable Teen (video)
Boston 25 2.2.26
Justin Silverman, Executive Director of the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC), criticized the department’s refusal to release even redacted documents. “This isn’t just about police transparency. This is also about our weak, if not broken, public records law,” Silverman stated. “Surgically redact information that can be redacted under the law and release everything else.” . . . “We need a way to change the law to make sure that the law is being followed,” Silverman said, “and more broadly, change this culture of secrecy that we’re seeing in Massachusetts right now.”
Somerville Shares Heavily Redacted Public Library Investigation
Cambridge Day 1.28.26
Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition (NEFAC), says it’s unclear who’s being protected, given that the case is already public. “If the employee’s name is already public knowledge and many of the facts of the particular case are already public knowledge, then there isn’t as much privacy to protect,” he said, adding, “The city should be giving far more information than it is.” . . . While “no state has the perfect law,” according to Silverman, Massachusetts is “pretty far down on the list” in terms of public records access. “You have this huge body of records that the public isn’t entitled to,” he said. Massachusetts is the only state in which the executive, legislative and judicial branches are all exempt from public records disclosures. (For decades, governors have claimed exemption, including Gov. Maura Healey in 2023, despite saying a year earlier when she was attorney general that the governor’s office should not be exempt.) Enforcement is also an issue. Silverman explained that in Massachusetts, the supervisor of records (currently Manza Arthur) issues rulings or determinations about records requests, but those decisions aren’t binding. “The supervisor doesn’t have any power to take these cases to court,” he said, “so those rulings are only as good as the paper that they’re written on.” Silverman cited Connecticut as a New England state with stronger enforcement mechanisms for public records requests. There, an independent commission hears public records disputes, and any member of a public agency who fails to comply with the law is considered guilty of a misdemeanor.
Delays, Denials, Determinations: State Health Dept. Slowwalks Media Records Requests
The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism 1.22.26
Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said the situation at the DPH is not unique. “Various government agencies slowwalk requests or ignore them so they don’t have to release information they don’t want to,” Silverman said. Adding, “More broadly speaking, the issue is enforcement.” “If those in government aren’t following the laws themselves and are working in secrecy,” Silverman said, “then we don’t know how the decisions that affect us are being made.”
The First Amendment, Decoded
Simmons University 1.20.26
The Simmons Center for Information Literacy recently presented “Information is Power: The First Amendment, Public Records, and the Press,” a mini-conference designed to address how we can all exercise our First Amendment rights. Here are some quotes from one of the presenters, Justin Silverman, Attorney and Executive Director of the New England First Amendment Coalition.