From The Olympian: Former Washington attorney general Rob McKenna says he favors a constitutional amendment as a way to counter last week’s state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a governor’s claim of executive privilege. Former governors Chris Gregoire and Gary Locke had invoked such a privilege claim in refusing to release certain sensitive public records, and Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation (now The Freedom Foundation) sued to strike down that claim.
Current Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, and McKenna, a Republican, both said last year during their campaign for governor that they would not exercise the privilege if elected. McKenna went further on Tuesday, explaining on his Smarter Government Washington web site why he thinks a constitutional amendment is needed. He called the court ruling, which had just one dissenting justice, Jim Johnson, “deeply damaging to the ideal that state government should be open and transparent.”
Visit The Olympian for more.
======