Court Hearing on Legislature Secrecy to be Heard Friday

A lawsuit over the California Legislature's records on staff budgets filed by the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee will have its first court date on Friday, and local lawmaker Anthony Portantino plans to be attendance, according to his staff.

The lawsuit was the result of a dispute between Portantino and Democratic leadership - following Portantino's vote against the state budget, party leaders claimed Portantino exceeded his budget and threatened to furlough his staff.

Portantino claimed the leadership had targeted him as the sole Democrat to vote against the budget, and filed a public records request for the Legislature to release more detailed budget information to prove his staff budget was not in excess of other legislators.

The newspapers have argued that the Legislature's subsquent refusal to release detailed spending reports violate the California constitution.  The Sacramento Bee's arguments for the lawsuit can be read on the paper's site.