OpenCommonwealth Sues Supervisor of Public Records.

On February 25, 2026 the Supervisor of Public Records (“SPR”) upended almost a year of decisions in what appears a politically motivated reversal.

Because the SPR has determined that the Department of Revenue (“DOR”) and its Records Access Officer, Attorney Roger H. Randall do not have to produce his 50 prior public records responses, OpenCommonwealth founder Bruce Friedman initiated a Certiorari and Mandamus action in the Suffolk Superior Court asking the Court to force the SPR to do her job and to properly interpret the statutes and the only relevant case law, Friedman v. Division of Administrative Appeals, where OpenCommonwealth’s Friedman successfully sued DALA and the BSEA and received further relief from the Massachusetts Court of Appeals including the accepted definition of what a reasonable request is.

It is curious that during a critical juncture in Massachusetts regarding transparency, where Diana DiZoglio has been forced to sue the Massachusetts Legislature to enforce the will of the people’s vote, the Massachusetts Attorney General has taken the side of opaque and unaccountable, opposing Ms. DiZoglio’s lawsuit.

The Attorney General failed to show up for the latest OpenCommonwealth court of appeals argument, to the great dismay of the Justice Rubin and Justice Henry, they also failed to file a brief. Now they also appear to bolster the SPR into protecting the DOR from public scrutiny.