From the Iowa City Press-Citizen:
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision Friday that the University of Iowa does not have to release to the Press-Citizen and other media outlets some student records related to a 2007 sexual assault investigation on campus.
Over the course of the newspaper’s four-and-a-half-year legal battle with UI over the records, UI was forced to turn over hundreds of documents it originally attempted to withhold. Press-Citizen attorney Paul Burns said Friday the documents that will not be disclosed represent a “small subset” of all the documents related to the investigation.
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The court’s 26-page ruling cites Iowa’s Open Records Act, which states that records are not to be disclosed if they would “cause the denial of federal funds to a state agency.” UI has argued that releasing the documents — which the university argues are student records — would violate the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and potentially cost the institution funding from the Department of Education.