Oregon Health and Science University lawyers just can't keep their paws off the state's public records law.



In 2003, the hospital got the Legislature to pass a special, temporary exemption to the law, to keep secret the identities of OHSU researchers who conduct medical experiments on animals (other than rodents), as well as the identities of companies supplying the equipment.



Back then, WW named OHSU lawyers Rogues of the Week for their effort. The exemption has since been renewed and is now due to expire in 2016.



OHSU has returned this session with a bill to make the exemption permanent. (Rat testers, you're still out of luck.)



The ACLU of Oregon has previously criticized the exemption as a way of withholding information from the public and of blunting critics of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, which conducts tests on rhesus macaques.



But as WW reported in this morning's Murmurs, the ACLU isn't opposing the bill to make the exemption permanent. Senate Bill 386 has passed the Senate, and is scheduled for a final vote in the House this week.



"We're still not crazy about it," says ACLU of Oregon executive director Dave Fidanque. "But it appears they're being more responsive to the watchdogs."



OHSU officials say the records-law exemption has proved valuable.



"For more than a decade," says OHSU spokeswoman Ariane Holm Le Chevallier, "this law has worked to protect researcher safety without jeopardizing transparency."

