The Cornell First Amendment Clinic represents journalist Chris Bragg and nonprofit news outlet New York Focus in a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) case seeking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s schedule and calendars, which the Clinic filed in Albany County Supreme Court on June 30, 2026.
The FOIL requests seek the governor’s daily schedules from October 1, 2024, to present, and the governor’s Outlook calendar and fundraising schedule from October 1 through November 1, 2025. Gov. Hochul’s office, the Executive Chamber, issued a blanket denial of the FOIL requests, claiming that all the records are shielded from public disclosure because they are intra-agency records until the Chamber posts sanitized versions on its website. These web versions of the governor’s calendars contain selected information and are subject to considerable delay — the most recent schedule available on the site is from September 2024, one year and nine months ago.
“The public shouldn’t have to settle for a hand-picked highlight reel published nearly two years after the fact. New Yorkers have a right to know how their governor spends her days — who she meets with, what she prioritizes, and what she doesn’t,” said Clinic local journalism attorney Michael Linhorst. “Democracy depends on voters being able to see their government at work, not just the parts it chooses to show them.”
In its initial denial and subsequent appeal denial, the Chamber also cited four additional exemptions, claiming that some unspecified portions were attorney-client privileged, their disclosure would be an unwarranted invasion of personal property or could endanger the life or safety of the governor and her staff, and that they had to be withheld to guarantee the security of technology assets. The Chamber made the same arguments in 2014 when it sought to withhold Gov. Cuomo’s calendars, but it was unsuccessful.
The Clinic seeks a court order requiring the release of the documents.