COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court vigorously
questioned lawyers on both sides Tuesday in a legal dispute over the
state’s decision to withhold records documenting threats against
Republican Gov. John Kasich from a political blogger.
The state
Public Safety Department cited security in denying a 2012 public-records
request by the Democratic-leaning blog Plunderbund, which sought
investigation files on any threats to Kasich or his staff.
Shortly
before the request, Kasich’s office cited a large number of threats
against the governor as a basis for declining to release daily schedules
to the state Democratic Party. The blog wanted to find out the nature
of the threats. Large labor protests had been staged against Kasich in
2011 during a battle over bargaining limits for public-employee unions
that ended in a new state law being overturned.
Plunderbund’s
attorney, Victoria Ullmann, argued Tuesday that the state denied the
blog the records based on an overly broad interpretation of the term
"security."
"We are not asking at all for security protocols. We
don’t want that; we’re not interested in that," Ullman told justices.
She said the department continued to deny access to threat records after
Plunderbund narrowed its request to only closed files, then to
documents describing the threats.
Ullmann asserts Ohio’s exemption
of security records from public release stemmed from a section of the
federal Patriot Act intended to protect buildings after the World Trade
Center attacks, not people.
Of a reference in the law describing
the security records as "a public office," she said, "I don’t know of a
single place in the Revised Code where a person is called an office.
That’s a building."
Several justices expressed skepticism.
"If
you’re talking about attacking ‘a public office,’ you’re talking about
attacking the officeholder and all of the employees within that public
office," said Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a former prosecutor and
state public safety director.
But Justice Paul Pfeifer said an
attitude that "we can’t tell you anything about anything" leaves state
lawmakers in the dark as they craft security budgets for the state.
The
state’s attorney, William Cole, said Ohio public-records law makes
clear the government can shield the records from public view for
Kasich’s protection — and that means the whole investigative file,
including the threat itself.
"All threat information is used by
the department in protecting the safety and security of the (public)
office," he said. "That’s all that’s required to trigger the
security-records statute."
Justice William O’Neill quizzed Cole on
the state’s blanket denial of the records, saying he was having trouble
understanding how the threat itself isn’t a public record.
"Isn’t that what they’re really asking for? They want to know who threatened the governor,"
O’Neill said.
Cole said "the entire record is out," as state law is written.
Justice Terrence O’Donnell asked why Plunderbund’s narrowed request seeking only closed files wouldn’t
have been honored.
Cole
replied, "If you give it to Plunderbund, it’s in the public domain.
Particularly with a media blog like that, it’s accessible to millions —
including the bad guys, including the terrorists. He said "even
seemingly innocuous information" can be used to develop attack plans and
countermeasures.
Pfeifer advised Cole to avoid terrorist
references during his arguments. He said scant information has caused
many to overblow the extent of any threats against Kasich.
"Maybe there isn’t anything," Pfeifer said. "Everybody’s left in the dark, so the
conspiracy theorists run away with it all."
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