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(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously sided with journalists in an Open Records Case against Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. Several local journalists sued after being unable to get public information in 2020 and 2021 about the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other public records. "The Court has put our state government on notice that it must respond to open records requests promptly and meaningfully," said ACLU-Iowa Staff Attorney Thomas Story.
"This unanimous decision from the Iowa Supreme Court is a victory for democracy in the state of Iowa," said Story during an online news conference today (Friday) with reporters.
Story says journalists were doing their job to inform the public about the pandemic, by asking for the information, but the state failed to produce records for over a year, which the lawsuit maintained was unreasonable. The records were released within six days once a lawsuit was filed.
Read the Iowa Supreme Court Opinion HERE.