Texas Department of Public Safety v. Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P.

joined by Justice HECHT, Justice GREEN, Justice GUZMAN, and Justice LEHRMANN.

Our common law protects from public disclosure highly intimate or embarrassing facts. We must decide whether it also protects information that substantially threatens physical harm. We conclude that it does. Both sides raise important questions, not just about safety but also about the public’s right to know how the government spends taxpayer money. Those issues could not have been fully litigated under the standard that prevailed before today’s decision. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and…