Loeb School Introduces 2023 First Amendment Award Honoree: Laurie Ortolano

Laurie Ortolano of Nashua, NH, is the 2023 First Amendment Award Honoree for her advocacy for government transparency. This award, from the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, honors New Hampshire individuals or groups that have advanced or exercised their First Amendment rights in some special or extraordinary way.

Ortolano's commitment to open government has been unwavering since her first encounter with right-to-know requests as a member of the Litchfield School Board in the early 2000s, where transparency was embraced without legal disputes. However, her move to Nashua in 2014 marked the beginning of a different journey.

City officials in Nashua have met Ortolano's numerous right-to-know requests for tax assessment, finance, and development information with denials, court battles, and even an arrest for criminal trespassing when she visited city hall during the pandemic without an appointment (the arrest was later annulled).

Undeterred by these challenges, she has consistently taken her fight to court, accumulating legal fees and costs totaling $270,000. Her persistence has paid off with victories in three cases, two cases still pending, and three awaiting judgments from the state Supreme Court. In 2023, a Superior Court judge ordered the city to pay Ortolano $63,400 in legal fees and mandated that Nashua city officials undergo remedial right-to-know training to avoid "future violations."

The city appealed to the state Supreme Court. In August, the justices upheld Ortolano’s victory. In their decision, they quoted a portion of the state’s right to know law, “The purpose of the right-to-know law is to ensure both the greatest possible public access to the actions, discussions, and records of all public bodies, and their accountability to the people.”

Ortolano’s honor will be celebrated at the Nackey S. Loeb School’s 2023 First Amendment Award event on Thursday, October 26, in Manchester. Event information, sponsorship, and ticket purchasing are available at loebschool.org.