The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a California solar power law, ruling that a state law requiring disclosure of energy data could be unconstitutional.
The court ruled that the disclosure of a person’s name, address and occupation does not constitute a “public record” under the California Public Records Act.
The decision means that the information that comes out of the solar industry must be publicly available, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The California Solar Industries Association argued in a brief for the justices that the public’s interest in knowing the identity of those who own and operate solar plants is important and that the law “would be a further burden on individuals who have chosen not to share their private information with the government.”
The ruling means that if a person wants to sell a solar plant, they have to reveal their identity and pay a fee to the state for their information.
In the ruling, the justices wrote that the California law did not “protect individuals who choose to not disclose their identities” to the government.
They said that the “record” of someone’s name is protected because “it is a public record, subject to public disclosure under the Public Records Law.”
The California law was passed in 2006 to make the state’s solar industry more transparent and to allow the state to collect a royalty fee from the solar manufacturers.
In an opinion released Monday by the state Supreme Court, the majority opinion said that although it was a difficult and difficult decision for the state, it could be “difficult” to uphold a similar law that requires the disclosure in the same way.
It was also noted that the decision was limited to California and could not be applied to other states.
The justices said that it was the state legislature’s responsibility to determine how the solar information should be disclosed and that they were unsure whether the California bill was “reasonably related to a legitimate state interest.”
In addition to the California solar industry, the Supreme Court also ruled that a Maryland law that required the disclosure for any person who sells solar panels is unconstitutional.
Under the law, anyone who sold a solar panel must disclose that person’s full name and address.
In a separate ruling from the court, the high court also ruled in favor of a California lawyer who sued the government to overturn a state solar law.
The law required solar manufacturers to reveal who is behind the panels and to pay for their electricity.
In September, the government filed a lawsuit to overturn the law and said that because of a dispute over whether the law was constitutional, the case was premature.
The government argued that the data should be made public because the information is “essential for the efficient and effective operation of the electric grid.”
The case was thrown out by the court last month.
The ruling was made by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to the high-court.
Gorsuch was also one of Trump’s most vocal critics on the Supreme Council of the United States, a group of conservative justices who serve as the court’s legal advisers.
He was not a member of the court during the Obama administration.
He is a former chief justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
The case that the court will hear is the one that was thrown into jeopardy after the Obama Justice Department filed a brief in January arguing that the federal government should not be allowed to regulate a state’s sunshine laws.
The Trump administration had argued that they are a violation of the states’ rights because they interfere with states’ ability to decide how to generate their own electricity.