open records

by Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 14, 2023

A lawsuit by three journalists who allege Gov. Kim Reynolds violated the state’s Open Records Law should continue in district court to determine whether her responses to their requests were timely, the Iowa Supreme Court decided Friday.

The suit was filed in late 2021 by the journalists of three organizations — including Iowa Capital Dispatch — after the governor’s office had failed to respond for up to 18 months to their records requests. The office provided the records less than three weeks after the lawsuit was filed.

“The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously determined that Gov. Kim Reynolds cannot violate Iowa’s Open Records Law by failing to respond to journalists’ public information requests,” said Thomas Story, an attorney for the ACLU of Iowa, which filed the suit on behalf of Iowa Capital Dispatch and the other plaintiffs