- THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS LON F. POVICH

CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL

 

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR 

CATHY M. UDD-STEIN
STATE HOUSE - ROOM 271 - DEPUTY CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02133 . .
. TEL: (617) 725-4030 - FAX: (617) 727-8290 . A- GOLDBERGER
DEPUTY LEGAL COUNSEL
CHARLES D. BAKER
GOVERNOR LEGAL OFFICE MICHAEL A. KANEB

DEPUTY LEGAL COUNSEL

KARYN E. POLETO

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR JOHN M. STEPHAN

DEPUTY LEGAL COUNSEL

Septemberl7, 2015

Todd Wallack

The Boston Globe

125 William T. Morrissey Blvd. .
Boston, MA 02205

VIA Email: twallack??globecom

Re: Record Request

Dear Mr. Wallack:

I am writing in response to your records request to the Office of the Governor dated
September 3, 2015, made pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law as set forth
in M.G.L. c. 66, ?10, seeking text messages sent and received by Governor Baker on his
state and personal mobile devices on February 9, 2015. You have excluded from your
request purer personal texts made on his personal devices. You also seek a copy of the
response of the Of?ce of the Governor to a separate public records request for text
messages made by Brian Keaney on August 13th through Muckrock.1

Any documents responsive to your ?rst request have been Withheld consistent with the

public records law as interpreted by the Supreme Judicial Court and the Secretary of the
Commonwealth. I am enclosing this Of?ce?s response to Mr. Keaney?s request.

Sincerely, 

If};  I  J,  
hair?  arm 
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Cathy M. Judd-Stein

 

1 Please note that the Of?ce of the Governor is not one of the instrumentalities enumerated in G.L. 4, 
cl. 26, and therefore its records are not subject to disclosure under the public records law. The Supreme-
Judicial Court has so held. Lambert V. Executive Director of the Judicial Nominating Council, 425
Mass. 406, 409 (1997). Notwithstanding Lambert, it is the voluntary practice of the Of?ce to consider and
to respond to public records requests on a case-by-case basis.