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It's a high stakes case over whether the public has the right to individual performance scores for government employees, namely teachers. The union sued to stop the city from releasing teacher report cards. City attorneys and lawyers representing NY1 and other media organizations, argued for the information to be released.

"Taxpayers have the right to know how their money is spent, how people are performing and how the Department of Education is doing it's job and this information is critical if the public is going to hold school systems and school administrators accountable," said the media organizations' attorney Dave Schulz.

The city has been scoring fourth through eighth grade math and English teachers for two years. Teachers are scored on how much their students improve, or not, on standardized tests. Now State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern has to decide whether the city is right to release the scores based on the Freedom of Information Law. The union says no.

"In the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court has in parallel cases said you shall not do this kind of thing to people. If it exposes them to shame or embarrassment you should not do it," said Teachers Union Attorney Charles Moerdler.

But the city and the media lawyers disagreed.

"People have privacy rights as citizens, as individuals. But when you are on the government payroll, you lose the right of privacy," Schulz said.

Union lawyers also argued the formula for the reports is imperfect, and in some cases, inaccurate data was used. They say three years ago, the city promised not to release the scores publicly. But the city and media lawyers said that's not a legal argument.

"That's not how the Freedom of Information Law works," Schulz said. "The Freedom of Information Law says that the government information is available for the public, so that the public can make those determinations. If, in fact, the Department of Education is spending millions of dollars to develop an assessment system that is meaningless, flawed or worse, the public should know that."

But law or no law, the union lawyer said it's just wrong.

"You're giving out report cards that are phony," Moerdler said.

The judge didn't give a hint as to when she will issue her decision.

If she does decide to let the city release the reports it will be a very big deal -- not only for the 12,000 teachers whose report scores will go public, but for teachers across the country.

New York would be the first city to release this kind of information publicly, although other cities have been confidentially creating similar reports for their teachers.