The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that says politicians on a legislative oversight committee don't have the same access to confidential information as the watchdog agency they oversee.
At issue is whether members of the Government Oversight Committee can review confidential records held by the Department of Health and Human Services pertaining to the state's care of four children that were killed in 2021.
While those records were provided to the watchdog agency that the committee oversees and used in investigative reports about the child deaths, the documents were not given to the politicians on the panel.
The oversight committee later sued DHHS for access to the same records. A trial court judge then ruled that the 2002 law that created the oversight committee and the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability purposely gave the watchdog agency different access to sensitive records to guard against their use for partisan purposes.
The law court affirmed that ruling on Thursday and suggested that lawmakers change the law if they want the oversight panel to access the same records as the watchdog agency.
