Football and a Standoff...
Ohio Public Records Briefing - Edition #112
Welcome to Issue 112! We could talk about the NHL draft, but Mark prefers hockey to football, so here’s the behind the scenes video of the Philadelphia Flyers organization assisting Pittsburgh Penguins fans get home safely from the Flyers arena. So kind!
And have you marked your calendars for our next webinar at Noon on Tuesday May 12th! Be sure to order your lunch here.
This week we’re stepping away from the Ohio Supreme Court and pulling a case from the 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus that shows how public records can affect everyday people. People like this.
Court Case(s) Review: Doe v. Ohio State Univ., 2024-Ohio-5891, (10th Dist.)
This week, we’re giving the Ohio Supreme Court a break and pulling a case from the 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County. It’s a good reminder that public records law doesn’t just affect governments; it can touch anyone who does business with a public entity. Even people who are just buying Ohio State Football tickets. This is a local football team, if you haven’t heard about them.
In this case, a ticket reseller tried to get the personal contact details of every Ohio State season ticket holder. Luckily, he didn’t succeed.
Between March and July 2023, a ticket reseller identified as John Doe fired off six public records requests to Ohio State asking for the names, home mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of faculty, staff, and donors who’d bought season tickets for Buckeye football and basketball. He also wanted seat locations and other ticket-holder details. Ohio State handed over some spreadsheets with names and work emails for the earliest requests but refused to turn over home addresses or personal emails, arguing they weren’t “records.” It never responded at all to four later requests. Doe sued to force OSU’s hand. The Court of Claims told Ohio State to turn over most of the information except home addresses and anything about students. Both sides appealed to the 10th District.