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1989 Maine Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1989)

handle is hein.sag/sagme0017 and id is 1 raw text is: 89-1 JAMES E. TIERNEY ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE OF MAINE DEPARTMENT OF TIHE ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE HOUSE STATIoN 6 AUGUSTA, MAINE 04333 January 19, 1989 Rollin Ives, Commissioner Department of Human Services State House Station $11 Augusta, Maine 04333 Dear Commissioner Ives: This responds to your request for a clarification of the Opinion of this Department of November 21, 1977 concerning public access to vital records. In particular, you have asked whether the conclusion of that Opinion, that all vital records except those of illegitimate births must be open to public inspection, applies'to information relating to the cause of death contained in death certificates which are in the possession of state or local custodians. For the reasons which follow, it is the Opinion of this Department that, like information relating to illegitimate births, cause of death information is not public. The broad question addressed in this Department's 1977 Opinion, a copy of which is attached, was the relationship between the Maine Freedom of Access Law, 1 M.R.S.A. SH 401 - 410 (1979 & Supp. 1988), and the specific provisions of 22 M.R.S.A. § 2706 (1980) regarding the disclosure of vital records. As the 1977 Opinion correctly points out, all documents in the possession of governmental entities in Maine are, under the express terms of the Freedom of Access Law, open to public inspection. 1 M.R.S.A. § 408 (1979). The Law, however, does make certain exceptions to this broad rule, the most important of which for present purposes is an exception for records that have been designated confidential by statute. 1 M.R.S.A. § 402(3)(A) (1979). 22 M.R.S.A. § 2706 is such a statute, which, as the 1977 Opinion recognized, among other things, renders information relating to illegitimate births confidential. 22 M.R.S.A. § 2706(1).

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