the missing public records, law homework help

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Please read the following article. 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in an interview about the missing public records that he had no obligation to help researchers for his opponents.

Mitt Romney’s aides, on their way out of the governor’s office in Massachusetts in 2006, to write personal checks for $65 each to buy the hard drives from their state office computers, taking with them government emails and other records of his administration, including information about the birth of the Romney health care insurance mandate.

It was claimed that the Romney administration could spend $97,000 in public money to swap out computers and email servers, making sure that emails never got into the hands of the public, journalists, historians and, not incidentally as Romney himself points out, his opponents in the 2012 presidential campaign.

And the Romney administration destroyed 150 boxes of government records.

“Public officials need an attitude adjustment,” said Ken Bunting, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the University of Missouri. “They need to recognize that the instruments of the government don’t belong to them. They belong to the people. Self-government doesn’t work without information. Government records, including emails, ought to be available without filing a lawsuit, without any more than a keystroke.”

 “Here’s the irony,” Bunting added. “In a roundabout way, Romney and his aides may have done a favor for open government. I would imagine that, for the citizens of Massachusetts, buying your hard drive so things disappear doesn’t pass the smell test. Everybody’s going to know it was done for the purpose of hiding information from the public. Evenif that’s perfectly legal, people would say, ‘How can they get away with that?’ Maybe there will be a move to change the law.”

Questions:

Ignoring the claim that Massachusetts Law allowed for the destruction of documents and e-mails, whether they are electronic or paper, discuss the following, include the relevant Federal Rule of Civil Procedure where necessary:

1.  In the event of litigation, or the threat of litigation, how this destruction of electronic and paper documents violate the Duty to Preserve.

2.  Explain what you believe the Court would do as far as sanction with this destruction of electronic and paper documents and whether this could be viewed as spoliation.


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Explanation & Answer

1. The Duty to Preserve states that there are rules on how information should be preserved and produced in civil disputes, but there is often a large gray area on the limits on this law due to the fact that the courts vary on their ideas based on whether they are a federal or state c...

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