ACLU Sues to Prevent Private Citizen from Receiving Public Records in Washington State
WoLF is fighting the injunction, which aims to prevent the public from obtaining information about the number of male prisoners currently housed in women’s prisons
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to prevent a private citizen from receiving public records from the Washington State Department of Corrections on the number of inmates in state custody who identify as transgender and the number of male inmates who are housed in women’s facilities.
The citizen, a woman who has asked not to be named for her safety, submitted the public records request on March 18, 2021. She is now being represented by WoLF in responding to the lawsuit.
The Washington Public Records Act guarantees that citizens have the right to access public records, and requires the government to respond to requests within five days. Only personal student or patient information, employee files, and some investigative records are exempt.
The request asked for documents pertaining to:
A complete and accurate count of inmates who identify as transgender (gender identity differs from sex identified at birth) in the custody of the Washington Department of Corrections [please break this information down by location]
Number of inmates that have been transferred from a men’s facility to a women’s facility since January 01, 2021
Total number of male persons who identify as female, non-binary, or any other gender identity that are currently housed in a women’s facility
Number of inmates who have transferred from a women’s facility to a men’s facility from January 01, 2021 to March 18, 2021
Number of female persons who identify as male, non-binary or any other gender identity that are currently housed in a men’s facility
On April 8, the citizen received email notification that the ACLU of Washington Foundation and Disability Rights Washington, along with their clients “who are current and former transgender, non-binary, and intersex inmates and in the custody of Washington Department of Corrections,” are naming her personally as an interested party in a lawsuit to prevent the information from being released. The email stated, “We have filed for an emergency Temporary Restraining Order and a Motion for Preliminary Injunction to prevent the disclosure of documents you have requested from the Department of Corrections.”
The ACLU also named members of the press, including The News Tribune, a Tacoma-based paper, as interested parties in the lawsuit.
The ACLU has regularly used Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and their state equivalents to access information relevant to the public interest. The ACLU of Washington has specifically advocated for the expansion of the Public Records Act in the past, stating, “Transparency is at the heart of democracy and today’s decision affirms the right of the public to know about the work of the legislators that represent them.” It is troubling both that the ACLU is seeking to silence an individual who is petitioning their government, as well as attacking the free press.
WoLF plans to fight this lawsuit, which is clearly aimed at suppressing citizen’s rights to access public records.
In a twist of irony, the citizen tells us she used resources provided on the ACLU’s website to draft the public records request which they are now seeking to squash.
If you would like to support this lawsuit, consider donating to our legal action fund or our general fund to support our overall mission.
* To clarify, being sued means that our client is named as a party by the ACLU in their lawsuit, along with others such as members of the News Tribune and the Washington Dept. of Corrections. She must now fight the lawsuit if she wants to have her lawful PRA request completed.
Correction (4/15): An earlier version of this content stated that the state did not reply to our client’s request within the given designated time period. However, the state did reply to our client on March 20th stating that they would process her request “on or before, April 9, 2021.” On March 23, they sent our client’s request to Ethan Frenchman, Staff Attorney at Disability Rights Washington (DRW). The lawsuit and temporary restraining order were filed on April 8 by the ACLU of Washington and the DRW. None of the records WoLF has obtained indicate that the state ever did intend to process our client’s request.