In 1990, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that work papers of private auditors hired by the Ohio Auditor to audit public entities were subject to disclosure. The Ohio legislature quickly reversed this, leaving Ohioans without access to work papers if the audit was assigned to a private auditing firm. More recently, the Ohio legislature removed the home addresses of firefighters and emergency medical technicians, certain identifying information in a public-health investigation, and names of concealed-weapon permit holders from public view, though in certain instances these records are open to members of the media. In 1993, the Ohio Supreme Court added a “judicial mental process privilege” protecting judges from being forced to disclose their notes taken during a case. In April of 2006, the Court determined that the Governor could withhold certain weekly reports sent by his cabinet members because of executive privilege, despite the fact that in 203 years, executive privilege had never been extended to the governor's office.
"Secrecy has its place, but governments are always tempted to overuse the 'secret' stamp. When that happens, it can come at the cost of the public's stake in such other values as safety or clean air and water." Senators Patrick Leahy and Carl Levin
