West Virginia Code 1-7-3 – Protecting privacy of association
(a) Except as otherwise provided in chapter 3 of this code, chapter 6B of this code, or subsection (e) of this section, a public agency may not require any tax-exempt organization under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c) to provide the agency with donor or membership information: Provided, That where the public agency nevertheless obtains donor or membership information, such information may not be released unless pursuant to chapter 3 of this code, chapter 6B of this code, or subsection (e) of this section.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 1-7-3
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
(b) A public agency may not release, permit to be released, nor be compelled to release any record which identifies an individual’s association with any tax-exempt organization under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c), or which reveals an individual’s financial or nonfinancial support for such an entity, without the express written permission of the entity and the citizen, or at the request of the citizen.
(c) All donor or membership information is exempt from production or disclosure under the state‘s Freedom of Information Act, § 29B-1-1 et seq. of this code.
(d) A public agency does not violate subsection (a) of this section if donor or membership information is redacted from a disclosed record.
(e) Nothing in this section precludes compliance with a lawful order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.