Words fail me.
North Carolina cities and other government agencies are pursuing the authority to sue citizens who ask to see public records.

Lawyers for local governments and the University of North Carolina are talking about pushing for a new state law allowing pre-emptive lawsuits against citizens, news organizations and private companies to clarify the law when there is a dispute about providing records or opening meetings.

On another front, the city of Burlington is appealing a ruling last year by the state Court of Appeals that said the government can't take people to court to try to block their access to records or meetings.

Citizens can sue the government over records, the court said, but not the reverse. The state Supreme Court takes up that case next month and is expected to settle the issue.

This is rather chilling. It's only a step and a hop from suing people for asking questions to arresting them. What gets me most is this quote:

"We need to have open government," [Ellis Hankins, Executive Director of North Carolina's League of Municipalities] said. "But governments need to operate. ..."

Implying that the continued operation of government is more important than having a transparent system accountable to its electorate is not, in my mind, a good thing. Government, and just about anything, really, need to continually re-assess whether or not it's doing the right thing, whether that be governing, or running a company, etc. Preserving the status quo is fine, but the world changes and policies can slip and shift around to do things they were not originally intended to do. The best way to prevent this is to let as many eyes as possible take a look and see what's going on--total transparency is only ever a good thing as far as I see it.

I hope this gets more news coverage so that the people of North Carolina can decide whether they want to live in a state where asking questions about the folks you elect can get you sued.  ¶ 11:42 a.m.