A federal judge Friday ordered Michigan officials to let an advocacy group examine case files involving foster children who have died in recent years while under state care.

The Michigan Department of Human Services said it would obey the order by Donald A. Scheer, a U.S. District Court magistrate judge in Detroit. Scheer approved a motion seeking the information, filed by New York-based Children's Rights.

"The court's ruling today tells the state that it cannot hide behind confidentiality laws designed to protect children in order to shield itself from public scrutiny," said Sara Bartosz, attorney for the group.

Children's Rights is suing the state over the quality of its child protection program, contending it is riddled with inadequate resources and poor services. That has resulted in substandard physical and mental care and foster children repeatedly being moved between homes, the August 2006 complaint says.

The group requested records involving six living children named as plaintiffs, in addition to 68 children who have died while in state care since 2004, a spokeswoman said. The class-action lawsuit represents all 19,000 Michigan children in the system.

State officials argued that privacy laws required them to withhold or edit documents to prevent release of information that could identify children, foster parents and biological parents. Case files typically include material such as Social Security numbers and medical and psychological records, said Maureen Sorbet, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services.

In his ruling, Scheer said the advocacy group's need to evaluate the department's performance outweighed the state's confidentiality concerns.

The law allows release of personal information when doing so "will promote the best interests of the children involved, the proper function and oversight of the system, or the interests of justice," Scheer said.

In a separate order, he instructed all those involved in the suit to protect confidential information from leaking.

"We will, of course, comply with the order," Sorbet said.