Alan Parmelee, an inmate at the state penitentiary at Walla Walla, has filed a large records request for "any and all records in any format, from any agency and/or person, relating to the prospective and subsequent passing, directly or indirectly, of HB 1181 and SB 5130."

The bills he cites are bills aimed at limiting excessive records requests by prison inmates.

"I think it's fitting that the very person who prompted the law in the first place will be the legal test case to try it out," Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, said in a press release this morning. Carrell sponsored the Senate version, which would allo courts to limit requests if they seem aimed at harassing or intimidating state officials.

Attorney General Rob McKenna has urged lawmakers to pass such a law, saying that some inmates have made a "cottage industry" out of filing massive records requests, then seeking cash penalties when the records are late or a record is wrongly denied.

For more on Parmelee, see this Seattle Weekly profile from last summer.

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