Pennsylvania court orders Education Department to release internal Penn State trustee records to Spotlight PA

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ordered the state Department of Education to provide Spotlight PA with internal Penn State University Board of Trustees records that could shed light on how public officials are representing the Commonwealth in discussions about the university’s budget challenges. 

In an 18-page opinion filed Monday, a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court ruled that some documents related to a private Penn State Board retreat and nonpublic Board committee meeting were not exempt from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law. 

Wyatt Massey, a reporter for Spotlight PA, had requested records from the state Departments of Agriculture and Education related to agency officials’ participation on the Penn State Board of Trustees. The Department of Education denied the request, a determination that the state Office of Open Records later rejected. Both Penn State and the Department of Education appealed to the Commonwealth Court. 

In Monday’s ruling the court rejected as “without merit” Penn State’s argument that state agencies don’t technically possess or control the records Spotlight PA sought because the university kept them in an online document-sharing platform. The court also concluded that the university’s statements in support of shielding information about its budget decisions “fall woefully short.”  

Paula Knudsen Burke, the Reporters Committee’s Local Legal Initiative attorney for Pennsylvania, and Heather E. Murray of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic represented the nonprofit news outlet and Massey.

“This decision is a major victory for government transparency and accountability,” Devin Brader-Araje, a Cornell Law School student who argued the case, said in a statement to Spotlight PA. “The Court made clear that government officials cannot use technology to hide public information from the public. The ruling reaffirms that Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law will continue to serve its intended purpose of ensuring open access to government records.”

Penn State is generally exempt from the RTKL, but in 2013, a court held Board materials that the secretaries used as trustees are public records. In a brief filed in the Commonwealth Court last year, Knudsen Burke and Murray emphasized the 2013 court decision and argued that Penn State’s arguments, if accepted, would mean agencies could use file-sharing platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox to avoid releasing records that would otherwise be subject to the RTKL. 

That outcome, Commonwealth Court Judge Lori A. Dumas wrote in the panel’s opinion, “would run contrary to the RTKL’s remedial purpose and the General Assembly’s intent that the RTKL be used as a vehicle for increasing and ensuring government transparency.” 

This case marks Burke’s latest legal victory on behalf of Spotlight PA to push for greater transparency surrounding one of Pennsylvania’s most influential institutions. In June, Penn State’s Board settled an open meetings lawsuit that Burke brought on behalf of Spotlight PA. The settlement agreement requires the Board to attend training on the Sunshine Act and disclose more information about its nonpublic meetings. 

“The university and its Board of Trustees are ultimately accountable to the people of Pennsylvania, and their business is the public’s business,” Burke told Spotlight PA at the time. 

Read more about the most recent victory from Spotlight PA.