FOIL governs access to which of the following?

• A. Private company records, regardless of ownership.
• B. All records held by private individuals.
• C. State and local government records (excluding courts and legislature).
• D. Federal agency records only.

Answer: (C)

FOIL is New York’s Freedom of Information Law. It gives the public access to records kept by state and local government agencies to promote transparency about government actions. It does not apply to records held by private companies or private individuals, and it does not cover federal agency records (that’s what the federal FOIA handles). A key nuance is that the records of the courts and the state legislature are generally not subject to FOIL, as they have their own access rules. Therefore, its scope is state and local government records, excluding courts and legislature.