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...primary purpose of G.L. c. 66, § 10, is to give the public broad access to government documents. See Cape Cod Times v. Sheriff of Barnstable County, 443 Mass. 587, 592 (2005); General Elec. Co. v. Department of Envtl. Protection, 429 Mass. 798, 802 (1999); Globe Newspaper Co. v. Boston Retirement Bd., 388 Mass. 427, 436 (1983). To that end, disclosure is favored by a "presumption that the record sought is public." G.L. c. 66, § 10 (c ). See Bougas v. Chief of Police of Lexington, 371 Mass. 59, 61 (1976) (documents presumed to be public records when possessed...
...employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose." G.L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth. See Hull Mun. Lighting Plant v. Massachusetts Mun. Wholesale Elec. Co., 414 Mass. 609, 614 (1993). This court has construed strictly the scope of G.L. c. 4, § 7, Twenty-sixth, to preclude the public disclosure of documents held by entities other than those specifically delineated in the statute. See Lambert v. Executive Director of the Judicial...
...implement the provisions of G.L. c. 66 to the supervisor of public records (supervisor), who has enacted comprehensive regulations regarding the scope and application of the public records law. See G.L. c. 66, § 1; 950 Code Mass. Regs. §§ 32.00 (2003). See also Globe Newspaper Co. v. Beacon Hill Architectural Comm'n, 421 Mass. 570, 583 (1996), and cases cited ("An administrative agency has jurisdiction to establish regulations that bear a rational relation to the statutory purpose"). Such regulations are to "be construed to ensure the public prompt access to all public records in the custody...
...public records law, and its implementing regulations, are applicable to documents held by public entities, not private ones. Simply put, Harvard University is a private institution, a fact not challenged by the Crimson. See, e.g., Rice v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, 663 F.2d 336, 337-338 (1st Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 928 (1982) (Harvard not a public institution and not sufficiently intertwined with Commonwealth to meet "[S]tate action" requirement for 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim); Krohn v. Harvard Law Sch., 552 F.2d 21, 23 (1st Cir.1977) (same). It follows, therefore, that records in the custody...
This court has recognized generally that privately employed security guards engage in functions that are different from those performed by ordinary police officers. Cf. Commonwealth v. Leone, 386 Mass. 329, 335 (1982). "General Laws c. 22C, § 63, does not confer upon campus security staff all the powers of a State police officer appointed pursuant to c. 22C, § 10." Commonwealth v. Mullen, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 404, 407 (1996). Contrast G.L. c. 41, § 99; Commonwealth v. Callahan, 428 Mass. 335, 337 (1998) (G.L. c. 41, § 99, is broad statute permitting Massachusetts cities and towns to requisition special police officers...