For Immediate Release
December 5, 2024
Media Contact: Dan Estes
daniel.estes@ag.idaho.gov
Attorney General Labrador Wins Sweeping Reversal at Idaho Supreme Court for University of Phoenix Case
[BOISE] – The Idaho Supreme Court today overturned a lower court ruling by Judge Jason D. Scott on the controversial and highly-publicized case involving the University of Idaho’s proposed purchase of the University of Phoenix, the State Board of Education, and Idaho’s Open Meetings Law. The ruling by the Idaho Supreme Court in Labrador v. State Board of Education included a reversal of the district court’s award of attorney fees.
“After fourteen months of working to ensure transparency, this is a comprehensive win for the people of Idaho and the principles of open government,” said Attorney General Labrador. “We maintained that the lower court’s ruling undermined Idaho’s Open Meetings Law and set a dangerous new precedent for subjective belief instead of objective fact when determining if a meeting should be accessible to the public. The Idaho Supreme Court agreed with my office on all three of the major issues raised and protected the right of the people to know exactly what their government officials are doing.”
In the majority opinion, Justice Gregory Moeller wrote, “Contrary to the Open Meetings Law’s preference for sunshine, the district court’s reading of the preliminary negotiation clause effectively cloaks all negotiations and actions taken prior to a final public vote in shadow by broadening the very exceptions that the legislature required be narrowly construed…[A]s applied in this case, the court’s discovery rulings not only hampered the Attorney General in performing its statutory duty to enforce the Idaho Open Meetings Law, I.C. § 74-208(5), but it also concealed the details of what transpired at the meetings from public view.”
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