As the New York Civil Liberties Union and major law firms continue their "police transparency campaign" linked to the repeal of a state law that had allowed police-misconduct records to stay hidden, the group and Latham & Watkins have now launched an appeal of a controversial lower-court ruling they say is undercutting transparency and the point of the repeal.

The briefing filed by the NYCLU and Latham & Watkins is the first time that the campaign, which is based on police-misconduct FOIL requests that have been lodged with a dozen police departments, has taken its legal arguments into state appellate court.