the missing public records, law homework help
Question description
Please read the following article.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in an interview
about the missing public records that
he had no obligation to help researchers
for his opponents.
Mitt Romney’s aides, on their way out of the governor’s
office in Massachusetts in 2006, to write personal checks for $65 each to buy
the hard drives from their state office
computers, taking with them government emails and other records of his
administration, including information about the birth of the Romney health care
insurance mandate.
It was claimed that the Romney administration could spend
$97,000 in public money to swap out
computers and email servers, making sure that emails never got into the hands
of the public, journalists, historians and, not incidentally as Romney himself
points out, his opponents in the 2012 presidential campaign.
And the Romney administration destroyed 150 boxes of government records.
“Public officials need an attitude adjustment,” said Ken
Bunting, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at
the University of Missouri. “They need to recognize that the instruments of the government don’t belong
to them. They belong to the people. Self-government doesn’t work without
information. Government records,
including emails, ought to be available without filing a lawsuit, without any
more than a keystroke.”
“Here’s the irony,”
Bunting added. “In a roundabout way, Romney and his aides may have done a favor
for open government. I would imagine that, for the citizens of Massachusetts, buying your hard drive so things disappear
doesn’t pass the smell test. Everybody’s going to know it was done for the
purpose of hiding information from the public. Evenif that’s perfectly legal, people would say, ‘How can they get
away with that?’ Maybe there will be a move to change the law.”
Questions:
Ignoring the claim that Massachusetts Law allowed for the
destruction of documents and e-mails, whether they are electronic or paper,
discuss the following, include the relevant Federal Rule of Civil Procedure
where necessary:
1.
In the event of litigation, or the threat of
litigation, how this destruction of electronic and paper documents violate the
Duty to Preserve.
2.
Explain what you believe the Court would do as
far as sanction with this destruction of electronic and paper documents and
whether this could be viewed as spoliation.
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