Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Colorado

Re: Receiving Requested Public Records

You seem to be going out of your way not to tell us what kind of checks these are, which makes me question your belief that it is public information. You say they are not confidential because they are "bank-photocopied, town-issued checks," but the fact that a check is copied by a bank doesn't strip it of whatever confidentiality it had before.

Individual town employees, for example, have a right to keep their paychecks confidential. Even if the amount of an employee's salary is public information, the paycheck might reveal personal information like the number of deductions the employee is claiming, how much she is deducting for a retirement account, whether her wages are being garnished, etc. This information is not publicly available either before or after a bank copies it.

I should note that banks copy *all* checks they process. If that were enough to make the checks publicly available, then even private-sector employees would not be able to maintain the confidentiality of their salaries. Likewise, the amount people pay in taxes and other personal matters would become freely available, as would the identities of everyone to whom they send checks.

Banks are obligated to keep this kind of information private, and that obligation protects everyone's interests.

My guess is that the checks you want to see contain precisely such confidential information. If I'm right, then the public has no right to see them. If you think there is something about your situation that should entitle you to see these checks when others can't, you can go to court and seek an order granting you access. If your reasons are good enough and the payees don't object, your request would probably be granted. But you shouldn't expect the keeper of your town's records to decide on his own whose privacy you can compromise and whose you can't.