Transparency Prevails in Defense of Anton’s Law

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD - In a key win for police accountability, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge J. Bradford McCullough issued a sweeping opinion late Friday demanding government transparency in a long-pending lawsuit brought by an anonymous police officer and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), John Doe v. Montgomery County. The ruling forcefully rejects FOP efforts to undermine and invalidate Anton’s Law – the public information act reform that opens access to police misconduct records.

Anton’s Law is part of a package of 2021 Maryland police reform measures enacted following years of effort led by the Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability (MCJPA). It allows public access to internal investigations and disciplinary records of police officers, overturning a 2015 Maryland Supreme Court decision treating officer misconduct records as “personnel records” barred from disclosure.

Anton’s Law is named for Anton Black, an Eastern Shore teenager killed by police in 2018, as a result of their efforts to restrain him during a mental health crisis. His death, and the years his family spent seeking information about the officers who killed him, brought into sharp focus the urgent need for transparency in policing. Anton’s Law ensures that families, communities, and the public have access to information about police misconduct.

Shortly after Anton’s Law went into effect, Montgomery County entered into a deal with the county FOP that required the Police Department to notify the union of all requests under Maryland’s Public Information Act (“MPIA”) seeking misconduct records that Anton’s Law made accessible. The arrangement gave the FOP the right to review any records the Department intended to produce and to prevent release of those records while the FOP sued to block disclosure.

The current lawsuit began when Alexa Renehan requested a Montgomery County Police Department (“MCPD”) officer’s Internal Affairs file, but the FOP sued the county to block the release and later added a broad constitutional challenge to Anton’s Law. When the lawsuit was filed, the county immediately agreed to keep all of the briefing and arguments in the case secret from the public. The MCJPA, represented by the ACLU of Maryland, intervened in the case, along with Ms. Renehan, to ensure the case did not proceed in total secrecy to defend Anton’s Law, and to challenge the legality of the side deal between the FOP and the County.

In a sweeping victory, the court rejected all of the FOP’s claims and arguments, agreeing with the intervenors that the county’s deal with the FOP violates the MPIA. The court first held that there is no legal pathway for police unions to block disclosure of the records Anton’s Law permits police departments to release, using so-called “reverse MPIA” actions like this lawsuit, securing lasting protection against future attempts to undermine transparency.

The ruling also concludes that none of the records or information that the FOP sought to keep secret are properly withheld. Rather, the court found, the records involve real people, real harm, and the exercise of official authority, which are precisely the circumstances where transparency is most important.

The court also forcefully rejected each of the constitutional arguments raised by the FOP challenging the legality of Anton’s Law. The opinion makes clear that police officers have no protected privacy interests in records related to their alleged misconduct, or in being publicly identified.

As the court put it, “Anton's Law was specifically crafted to address growing concerns surrounding police accountability and to reinforce the public's trust in law enforcement. There is a widely held view that ‘historic lack of transparency about police misconduct issues has played a part in generating the public controversy about officers' use of force.’”

Finally, the court invalidated the side deal the County made with the FOP giving special rights to police officers to control public records access. In the court’s words, that arrangement “flies in the face” of the MPIA’s requirements and weakens the law’s "objective of prompt disclosure.” The decision concludes that the deal between the County and the FOP “is illegal and invalid and unenforceable.”

“This ruling on Anton’s Law opens the door for the community to have the access to the information it needs to expose more of the ways that law enforcement engages in our collective dehumanization,” said Dayvon Love, Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. “This is the ammunition necessary for more policy change that increases community control of law enforcement.”

As a result of this victory, the requested records will be released, the side deal is voided, and the FOP will not be able to bring similar actions seeking to block release and substitute their judgment for that of the publicly accountable records custodians. Equally importantly, the decision means that an almost identical policy adopted by the Baltimore County Police Department after the enactment of Anton’s Law is also clearly unlawful and unenforceable.

“This ruling is a resounding affirmation that transparency in policing is not optional—it is essential to public trust and democratic accountability,” said David Rocah, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Maryland. “The court made clear that Anton's Law fundamentally changed the rules regarding public access to records of investigations into police misconduct. Neither secret deals with police unions, police policy changes, nor meritless legal challenges can override the public’s right to know how law enforcement exercises its authority. Police Departments are on notice that Anton's Law must be followed.”

The MCJPA is represented by ACLU-MD attorneys Deborah Jeon, David Rocah, and Sonia Kumar, and by ACLU-MD cooperating attorneys Theodore Howard, Mary Borja, Thomas Boley, and Kahlil Epps at Wiley Rein LLP.