[J-3-2023]
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
MIDDLE DISTRICT
TODD, C.J., DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, BROBSON, JJ.
PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE,
Appellee
v.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF
PENNSYLVANIA,
Appellant
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No. 44 MAP 2022
Appeal from the Order of the
Commonwealth Court at No. 1066
CD 2017 dated November 17, 2021
Vacating the Determination of the
Office of Open Records at No. AP
2017-0593 dated July 7, 2017 and
Remanding.
ARGUED: March 7, 2023
OPINION
JUSTICE WECHT
DECIDED: August 22, 2023
This appeal arises under the Right-to-Know Law (“RTKL”). 1 We consider whether
the Commonwealth Court abused its discretion when—sua sponte—it issued a remand
to the Office of Open Records (“OOR”) for additional fact-finding after that court already
had determined that the agency subject to the record request failed to meet its burden of
proving that an exception to disclosure requirements applied. We conclude that such an
abuse of discretion occurred, and we accordingly reverse. We remand this matter to the
Commonwealth Court for disposition consistent with this Opinion.
The General Assembly enacted the RTKL in 2008 in an effort to promote
transparency. The RTKL provides that any “record in the possession of a Commonwealth
agency or local agency shall be presumed to be a public record” unless it is protected by
a privilege, exempt from disclosure under “any other Federal or State law or regulation or
1
Act of Feb. 14, 2008, P.L. 6, No. 3, 65 P.S. §§ 67.101- 67.3104.