The Ohio Supreme Court declined to order Ohio’s public safety department to release certain records to Plunderbund Media.

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to order Ohio’s public safety department to release certain records to Plunderbund Media.

The Ohio Supreme Court today denied a request from a central Ohio media outlet asking the court to order a state agency to release information about threats made against the governor.

Threats to the governor qualify under Ohio’s public records law as security records, which are exempt from disclosure, the court ruled in a unanimous decision.

Plunderbund Media had asked the Ohio Department of Public Safety in an August 2012 public-records request for the number of investigations into threats made to Governor John Kasich conducted by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and for copies of final investigation reports. The department denied the request, stating that the documents were not required to be disclosed because they are security records.

Following a few months of ongoing communications, Plunderbund filed a request with the Ohio Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to force the public safety department to release the records.

In today’s per curiam opinion, the court explained that “security records” are in part defined in the public records act as “[a]ny record that contains information directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public office against attack, interference, or sabotage.”

While Plunderbund had argued that the definition only includes records created to protect the physical facilities of the governor’s office, the court disagreed.

“[A] public office cannot function without the employees and agents who work in that office, and records ‘directly used for protecting or maintaining the security of a public office’ must inevitably include those that are directly used for protecting and maintaining the security of the employees and other officers of that office,” the opinion stated.

In this case, several experts submitted affidavits stating that investigative reports of threats to the governor contain information used to protect and maintain the security of the governor’s office. The experts included John Born, the current director of the public safety department, as well as the Highway Patrol’s superintendent, Ohio Homeland Security’s executive director, and a patrol staff lieutenant who is part of the governor’s security team.

Based on the testimony from these officials, the court determined that records about threats to the highest official in Ohio’s executive branch are security records because they are used to protect the governor, his staff, and family and to maintain the secure functioning of his office. As security records, the information is exempt from disclosure, the court concluded.

Justice Sharon L. Kennedy recused herself in this case. Judge Michael E. Powell of the Twelfth District Court of Appeals served as a visiting judge in her place.

2013-0596. State ex rel. Plunderbund Media v. Born, Slip Opinion No. 2014-Ohio-3679.

View oral argument video of this case.

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