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J. Protective Orders                                        PREVIOUS PAGE

The Public Disclosure Act provides that a superior court may enjoin examination of a specific public record upon a showing that examination would clearly not be in the public interest and would (not may) irreparably damage a person or a vital government function. The Supreme Court of Washington has repudiated an earlier cse that appeared to interprete this langauge as allowing courts to withhold documents on the grounds of protecting the public interest and vital goernment functions, even if no specific exemption applied. This provision does not crate an independent basis for withholding documents.

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