Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey has signed into law a measure narrowing access to government records, angering activists who have argued that the legislation will allow public corruption to flourish.
The new law, which Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, described as an effort to modernize the state’s existing Open Public Records Act, will give the government more discretion on what information it will release, and when.
Budgets, bills, vouchers and contracts — previously ordered to be readily available — now may be delayed if they’re more than two years old. People or organizations who successfully sue for access to government documents will have a more difficult time being reimbursed for their lawyers’ fees. And deadlines for the government to fulfill requests for public records — already routinely violated, with little repercussion — will be greatly extended.
The legislation angered the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters of New Jersey and the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government. The New Jersey Press Association and the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists contended that public documents are key to detecting and preventing manipulation of money, public policy and other taxpayer interests.
In a statement on Wednesday, the governor acknowledged the opposition to the law.
“I know that this decision will disappoint many members of the advocacy community, including a number of social justice, labor, and environmental organizations, among others,” Mr. Murphy said.
But he pushed back against arguments that the legislation would create new opportunities for malfeasance.
“New Jerseyans across the political spectrum feel deeply betrayed and outraged by the serious allegations that our senior United States senator accepted bribes from a foreign government,” he said, referring to Senator Robert Menendez, who is on trial in Manhattan on federal corruption charges. “If I believed that this bill would enable corruption in any way, I would unhesitatingly veto it.”
Sponsors of the bill said that changes were necessary to limit access by the $300 billion data-broker industry, which bundles and sells records to online vendors, the legal industry and even federal, state and local governments. The New Jersey Association of Counties and the New Jersey League of Municipalities, which both supported the legislation, said those businesses placed an overwhelming burden on government staffs to hand over information at the expense of other duties.
State Assemblyman Joe Danielson, a Democrat from Somerset, a prime sponsor of the bill, called it a step “to protect taxpayers’ resources.”
Records advocates swiftly condemned the signing, saying it would stain Mr. Murphy’s administration.
Dena Mottola Jaborska, the executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action, called the signing a “slap in the face to the public.”
Mr. Murphy, 66, has made broad pledges to promote government transparency since his first of two terms began in January 2018. Minority communities and law enforcement groups worked with the Murphy administration to establish a database to track complaints about use of force; mandate release of footage from police dashboards and body-worn cameras in cases involving death or serious injury; and require licensing of police officers. Amid a yearslong national wave of documented police brutality, those initiatives put New Jersey at the forefront of accountability.
But in April 2023, he came under harsh criticism from good-government groups when he signed legislation that narrowed campaign-finance investigations and raised political contribution limits.
Attempts to rein in records laws aren’t unique to New Jersey. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, a Republican, recently signed a bill to block the release of officials’ calendars. The nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight called the step “a shameless attempt to allow officials to hide their activities from public view.”
Also in recent weeks, lawmakers in Kentucky have advanced legislation to exempt “every state or local government officer” from having to disclose records. In Louisiana, Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, showed support for legislation that would withhold documents that show how government decisions are made. “You don’t want to know what the cook put in there, where he got the ingredients, how many people were involved in cooking it,” Mr. Landry said in a televised interview. “All you care about is a good meal.”