Puerto Rico Board Faces Test With Supreme Court Records Case

The US Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case over journalists’ demand for records from the federal board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances will heighten transparency issues that irk the island’s residents, a review that could impair its operations.

The Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board last week successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to consider overturning a pair of lower court orders that it produce communications subject to Puerto Rico constitutional public disclosure law. The appeal pits what the board says is its constitutional right to sovereign immunity against the journalists’ calls for greater clarity in its endeavors to recalibrate ...