NY High Court Orders Disclosure of Death Record Information (1)

New York’s health department must provide a California nonprofit with detailed information from death records dating from 1973 to 2017, the state’s high court said in a divided opinion Thursday.

The 4-3 court said the Department of Health failed to show information from death records that it already publishes online—such as first and last name, date of death, gender, and residence code—is exempt from public disclosure, and it must provide that information to nonprofit Reclaim the Records for all years from 1957 to 2017. The department already makes that information available for 1957 to 1972.

Reclaim the Records doesn’t want ...