Iowa Supreme Court sides with reporters against Gov. Reynolds in Open Records case

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The Iowa Supreme Court denied an appeal from Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds to dismiss a lawsuit claiming her office systematically ignored Iowa’s Open Records law and hid public information during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Iowa Freedom of Information Council, of which KCRG-TV9 is a member, along with the Iowa Capitol Dispatch and Bleeding Heartland sued the Governor’s Office in December 2021, citing several records requests that went unanswered regarding Iowa’s COVID-19 response. In some cases, requests went unanswered for 18 months. The lawsuit seeks an order for the Governor’s Office to comply with Iowa’s Open Records law as well as court costs and attorneys fees.

A month after the lawsuit was filed, the Governor’s Office responded to all outstanding requests and claimed that rendered the lawsuit moot and argued there is no timeliness requirement in Iowa’s Open Records law. It also claimed that the Governor’s Office specifically is not beholden to making timely responses to open records requests.

The Supreme Court rejected that argument, allowing the lawsuit against the Governor’s Office for violating the state’s Open Records law to proceed.

“In short, the Governor believes that the “reasonableness of her response time” can’t be litigated without violating our constitution,” the Supreme Court ruling states. “We disagree.”

The Court states timeliness is a factor in responding to open records requests to meet the stated purpose of the law for to “encourage the ‘free and open examination of public records.’”

The ruling also states the Governor’s Office has not clearly fulfilled all of the requests. Several were denied or redacted and, therefore, open to a legal challenge on whether the denial or redaction is legal.

The lawsuit now reverts back to the district court where a trial date has not been set.

Gov. Reynolds released a statement Friday in response to the Iowa Supreme Court’s opinion:

“The initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic consumed every aspect of our daily lives, and accordingly my office shifted its entire focus to help Iowans navigate that difficult period. During that time, there was an unprecedented number of open records requests and many of those went unfulfilled for a period. While we disagree that this lawsuit should continue, my office has eliminated the backlog of open records requests and is committed to upholding our responsibility to respond to any new requests in a timely manner.”