A sneaky, last-minute amendment restricts public's right to know

"[A] new state law [in Connecticut], slipped in surreptitiously as an amendment in the waning hours of the legislative session of the General Assembly, makes research of [historical] medical records...all but impossible. This new law, which keeps secret many records of long ago, is unnecessary, injurious and perpetuates a stigma associated with mental illness -- even with cases of hundreds of years ago. The new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act apply to records created in marital relationships, clergy-penitent relationships, doctor-patient relationships, therapist-patient relationships "or any other privilege established by the common law or the general statutes." These privileges are retroactive into the past and extend to the future without limitation, even if the documents were "created or made prior to the establishment of the applicable privilege under the common law or the general statutes." This ill-advised new law will stymie scholarly research...."