Waterloo Times

Several Iowa news organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for failing to provide long-requested documents about the Iowa State Patrol’s border deployment, private fundraising at the governor’s residence and comments Reynolds made to meatpacking plant workers during COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit, announced by the ACLU, was filed in Polk County District Court, the (Cedar Rapids) Gazette reported Dec. 16. It asks a judge to compel Reynolds to turn over the records to comply with Iowa Code Chapter 22.

"Our clients would have much preferred the Governor’s office follow the law than have to take this legal action just so they can do their jobs," ACLU Iowa tweeted Dec. 18.

Listed plaintiffs in the case, according to the ACLU, include Laura Belin and her news organization Bleeding Heartland; Clark Kauffman of Iowa Capital Dispatch, and Randy Evans of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, which represents news outlets across the state, including the Gazette.

“We all wish this action today was not necessary, but we are long past the point when any delay could conceivably be seen as reasonable,” Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said at a news conference Dec. 16, the Gazette reported.

“In times of challenge like these, it’s even more important than ever than ever that reporters are able to do their work,” she said.

Some of the requests are more than a year old.

“By stonewalling my records requests for over a year, the governor’s office has concealed information about matters of clear public interest,” Belin said in a statement, the Des Moines Register reported Dec. 21. “Iowans have a right to know the information included in these requests.”

Reynolds' office is already facing other lawsuits over public record requests, according to the Des Moines Register. In one case, involving a request from March for state contracts with Nomi Health for COVID-19 testing, Reynolds argued in court that her office was too busy responding to the pandemic to promptly answer the requests and that information about how her staff allocated time and efforts should be shielded by executive privilege.