Brunner suffers third legal defeat in a week

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is desperately trying to hide her court testimony from public view, but the Ohio Supreme Court again sided with Ohioans today on their right to full access:

The Ohio Supreme Court late Thursday denied two requests from Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for an order to shield from disclosure her videotape deposition in a legal battle with the Summit County Republican Party.  (Gongwer News Service)

Brunner teamed up with publicly-funded lawyers from Attorney General Marc Dann's office to first argue against making her testimony public, then against videotaping the deposition, and finally against allowing the tape to be accessed by the public.  The court ruled against Dann's lawyers in all three arguments.

The Akron Beacon Journal joined the case as a "friend of the court," arguing Brunner's claim that the tape could be used against her politically is not enough to keep it private:

"That records may be filed which are embarrassing to one party or another is not determinative of whether they should be sealed," Ms. Lefton said. "Rather, it is whether having open access would in some significant, measurable way impair the administration of justice. In this case, no such result was even alleged."

So we're back to the political hypocrisy of Marc Dann and Jennifer Brunner campaigning for office on open government but arguing just the opposite when it impacts them.