OLYMPIA – The Washington Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that legislators are subject to the state Public Records Act (PRA), marking a historic ruling for news and media outlets as well as other advocates of open-record policies.
In the case of the Associated Press et al. v. Washington State Legislature et al., the decision threw out a decade’s-old contention driven by both Democrats and Republicans alike. The Legislature declared that lawmakers were not subject to the PRA – a law that applies to other government officials and the governor’s office, as well as city councils and police departments across the state of Washington.
The PRA requires public access to all records and materials from state and local agencies, and media outlets specifically fought to repeal that right from lawmakers for the sake of transparency throughout the state.
In the Dec. 19 ruling, Justice Susan Owens wrote, “under the plain meaning” of the records act, “individual legislators’ offices are ‘agencies’ subject to the PRA’s general public records disclosure mandate. Legislative history confirms rather than contradicts our conclusion. Accordingly, we hold that the News Media Plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on this issue.”
The ruling upheld a prior lower court decision after 10 news organizations who have long fought the law, led by The Associated Press, filed a lawsuit that contested the Legislature’s claims that lawmakers are exempt from the act, which was voted in in 1972.
The definition of public records, particularly surrounding the Washington state legislature, has been the subject of numerous lawsuits in the decades since the law was passed, making the decision a big win for the media.
Aside from The Associated Press, the additional groups involved in the lawsuit are: Northwest News Network, KING-TV, KIRO 7, Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington, The Spokesman-Review, the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, Sound Publishing, Tacoma News Inc. and The Seattle Times.