Private Contractors Working for Government Must Hand Over Records: Georgia Supreme Court

Records held by private contractors working for the government are available to the public under a public record law, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled. “Nothing in the plain language of [the Open Records Act] or any other provision of the Open Records Act dictates that only agencies … can receive requests for public records and/or are obligated to produce public records or otherwise make such records available for review,” Georgia Supreme Court Justice Shawn Ellen LaGrua wrote in the unanimous decision. Ryan Milliron, who brought the suit, requested records from Manos Antonakakis, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, related to the work Antonakakis performed for the public university and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as a private contractor. Antonakakis declined to provide records, arguing the Open Records Act does not apply to him and that Georgia Tech was responsible for providing the records to Milliron....