ACLU of Iowa sues Reynolds over access to government records

The ACLU of Iowa is suing Gov. Kim Reynolds in an effort to force the release of government records related to a decision to block The Satanic Temple of Iowa from staging an event at the Iowa State Capitol.

The lawsuit was docketed in Polk County District Court on Tuesday, four days after Reynolds sought a court injunction that would block the Des Moines Register from accessing an entirely different set of records. The Register is seeking documents pertaining to allegations about the finances of Lutheran Social Services and its affiliates, but the governor’s office has claimed the sought-after documents are covered by executive privilege and need not be disclosed.

The ACLU case also involves a claim of executive privilege by Reynolds’ office. The ACLU case stems from a June 2024 request by the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers for documents from the governor’s office that are related to the State of Iowa’s decision to cancel an Iowa Satanic Temple winter celebration in the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol.

The governor’s office refused to produce all of the requested documents, citing executive privilege, even though, the ACLU argues, the documents in question are an executive agency report and documents related to media preparation.

Some relevant materials were turned over, but much was redacted, according to the ACLU.

“At present, this claimed ‘executive privilege’ has no limit unless one is self-imposed by the governor’s office,” the lawsuit states. “This would, contrary to the purposes, goals, and express language of Iowa’s Open Records Act, allow the governor’s office to reject the public interest in favor of free and open examination of public records solely because of the potential for inconvenience or embarrassment.”

In addition to Reynolds, the lawsuit names as a defendant Steven Blankinship, general counsel for governor.

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that Reynolds has violated the Iowa Open Records Law, an order enjoining the governor’s office from committing any future violations for one year, and an injunction requiring Reynolds to turn over the requested records.

The governor’s office has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, and her communications staff did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

It’s not the first time the ACLU and Reynolds have clashed over access to information. In 2023, the ACLU of Iowa successfully sued Reynolds’ office on behalf of Iowa Capital Dispatch and other media representatives and advocates for failing to respond in a timely fashion to journalists’ requests for information about the state’s response to COVID-19. The Iowa Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Reynolds, and her office was ordered to comply in a timely manner to public record requests from journalists.

The Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, or IAF, is a public interest group based in central Iowa that focuses on secular governance, the importance of science, separation of church and state, and a transparent and responsive government.

Jason Benell, IAF’s president, said the organization “contends that it is in the interest of the public, regardless of their religious, economic, ethnic, or any other background, that our government be transparent and responsive to the needs of the governed… The governor’s office has repeatedly refused to respect the rights of Iowans by unjustly and flagrantly asserting executive privilege in order to avoid accountability in matters of public interest.”

Thomas Story, an ACLU of Iowa staff attorney, said the lawsuit is intended to challenge the governor’s claim of “an unprecedented ‘executive privilege’ to defy Iowa law. For more than half a century, the Iowa Open Records Act has ensured that the work of the state happens in the open. Now, the governor’s office has decided it alone gets to decide what the public sees. The Iowa Constitution does not give it this authority.”

Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, said that as one of the plaintiffs in the 2023 lawsuit against Reynolds, the council is concerned that the refusal to turn over records concerning the planned Satanic Temple event at the Capitol was a “continuation of the governor’s desire to shield from public release documents that might cast her in a negative light.”

Evans said the “people of Iowa are entitled to evaluate their governor’s actions. That becomes difficult when the governor tries to hide behind what should be a very narrow interpretation of executive privilege.”