DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit towards Gov. Kim Reynolds that seeks to require her workplace to reply to public document requests.

The courtroom in a unanimous choice rejected Reynolds’ argument that her workplace wasn’t obligated to reply in a well timed matter to document requests and that she may keep away from the state’s open information legislation by merely ignoring the requests. The Supreme Court ordered that the case be returned to the district courtroom the place it might be selected its deserves.

“The governor’s office wanted a rule that it and its agencies can ignore public records requests without any consequences,” stated Thomas Story, an lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which represented three media organizations. “Instead, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that nobody is above the law.”

In a press release, Reynolds blamed any delays on a busy employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic and stated her workplace now could be responding to information requests.

“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,” Reynolds stated in a press release.

The case stems from a 2021 lawsuit filed by the three media organizations and their reporters who claimed the governor had violated Iowa’s open information legislation by ignoring requests for presidency information. The reporters had emailed the governor’s workplace with eight totally different open-record requests between April 2020 and April 2021 and renewed every request at the least as soon as however didn’t obtain any response till submitting a lawsuit in December 2021.

The media group are the liberal-leaning Bleeding Heartland weblog, Iowa Capital Dispatch and Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonprofit that focuses on open authorities points.

After the lawsuit, the governor’s workplace launched the information inside six days, though some have been closely redacted.

State attorneys requested a district courtroom choose to dismiss the case, noting the governor’s workplace had finally responded to the requests and launched public information. After the choose denied the request, the governor appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.

In searching for to dismiss the lawsuit, state attorneys argued the criticism was moot as a result of the governor’s workplace had launched the redacted information. The media group argued the governor’s workplace’s lack of any response to document requests till after a lawsuit was filed represented a violation of the open information legislation, however state attorneys claimed the governor wasn’t obligated to reply inside a specified time interval and that it might be inappropriate for the Supreme Court to situation necessities for the Executive Branch.

The state additionally argued that by not responding to open information requests, the governor’s workplace wasn’t truly refusing to reply to these requests.

In rejecting that argument, the courtroom’s choice included a number of dictionary definitions of the phrase, “refuse.”

“We conclude that a defendant may “refuse” both by (1) stating that it gained’t produce information, or (2) displaying that it gained’t produce information,” the choice stated. “And we believe that this second kind of refusal - an implied or “silent” refusal - will be proven by an unreasonable delay in producing information.”

Although the media group’s case nonetheless should strive their case in district courtroom, Story stated the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling set an necessary precedent for open information rules.

“They not only reaffirmed prior precedent but the court provided additional guidance moving forward as to how state agencies must comply with these record requests and that guidance is very favorable to making open records requests and advances the cause of transparency in government,” Story stated.

Like many Iowa information organizations, The Associated Press is a member of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

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