Policy group joins appeal in Ohio public records case

(The Center Square) – An Ohio policy group wants courts to stop keeping public records secret and follow laws established by the General Assembly.

The Buckeye Institute filed a brief in an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court after two courts denied a citizen’s attempt to gain access to a traditional mail and email list a small township used to send newsletters.

Christopher Hicks says it’s the General Assembly’s responsibility, not the court’s, to determine what is not part of public records.

“Increasingly, Ohio courts have relied on the judge-made administrative convenience doctrine to shield government records from the public,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “However, it is not the courts’ job to invent legal doctrines to avoid the fact that the General Assembly has not addressed a particular privacy issue.”

In his motion to the Ohio Supreme Court to hear the appeal, Hicks said the case is of public and great general interest, saying if the rulings from the court of claims and the 12th Appellate District stand, the public’s ability to monitor government will be prohibited.

Hicks believes some citizens of Union Township are being excluded from the newsletters.

“A dangerous precedent in a time of curation, targeting and shadow banning with the benefit of technology. A precedent that undermines not only the Public Records Act, but of the right of access to government under the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution, and the ability of citizens to respond to government messages designed to support government and the elected officials determining which messages to send and to whom,” Hicks wrote in the motion.

The Buckeye Institute, in its amicus brief, said government must take a broad view of public records.

“Absent a legislative change, governments must produce records that meet the text of the public records law, as it is liberally construed,” the brief said.