The Supreme Court has reinstated a California law allowing certain police records to be released to the news media and others, but not for commercial purposes, according wire service reports. The justices, by a 7-2 vote, overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that struck down the California law for violating commercial free-speech rights.
State lawmakers amended the state’s public records law in 1996 to limit the release of information on arrested suspects and crime victims to those with “a scholarly, journalistic, political or governmental purpose or a licensed private investigator.”
