Appeals court asks for briefs in U of I lawsuit

Attorneys for the University of Illinois who are trying to protect information about students involved in a 2009 admissions scandal were hammered by federal appellate judges Friday about why the federal courts should be involved.

The case stems from a Chicago Tribune investigation into how the university admitted well-connected but under-qualified students who were tracked on a special list. The newspaper sought students’ names as part of its coverage and sued after the university refused to release them.

Lawyers tried to focus on that issue during Friday’s hearing before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. But judges repeatedly interrupted with jurisdiction questions and ultimately gave the university and Tribune two weeks to file briefs addressing why the case shouldn’t be handled in state court. Lawsuits have been filed in both state and federal court.

The university is appealing a federal judge’s March ruling that the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act doesn’t require students’ names be withheld. The judge ruled the university could choose to release the records and forgo federal money, so it wasn’t strictly prohibited by the law from releasing information. The university claims it can’t release the names because the law protects student privacy at schools that receive federal funds, and turning down federal money isn’t a realistic option.

Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook said the case appears to mainly involve the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which allows federal exemptions, so going to federal court instead of state court may be unwarranted.

“The problem is tying the decision to accept (federal) funding to rescinding of a (state) statute or suspension of a statute,” Easterbrook said.

Judge Ann Claire Williams said it appeared both sides were seeking a quicker resolution in federal court.

The university in the past has cited exemptions in the Illinois open-records law that also could protect it from releasing student information, but the school’s attorneys hinted Friday that those protections aren’t considered comprehensive.

Gregory Ostfeld, an attorney for the university, argued Friday that without the federal law’s protection, the university would “be left with piecemeal protection” under the state law.

The scandal was briefly discussed during the hearing when Judge Richard Posner questioned one of the university’s attorneys.

“The university has engaged in a scandal the full dimensions of which aren’t known,” Posner said.

After pressing the school’s lawyer to agree with him that not everything is yet known about the scandal, Posner said, “What the press wants to know is: Who are these families? What are their connections to various public officials? That’s important.”

Following Friday’s hearing, Samuel Skinner, an attorney for the university, said the case is about determining what student information should be private.

“This is about what rights are protected of students and prospective students to the University of Illinois,” Skinner said. “Is their grade point protected? Is their disciplinary record protected? Is their high school transcript protected?”

Tribune editor and senior vice president Gerould Kern said in an email to The Associated Press that the case “centers on whether the University of Illinois will be permitted to withhold public information that shows how politically powerful people in Illinois stood to benefit by clouting students into the state’s flagship university.”

Kern said the newspaper never sought to publish the students’ names.

“We have written numerous stories exposing the school’s preferential treatment of powerful politicians and lobbyists without naming the students involved,” Kern said. “But the only way to reveal how the powerful wielded their influence is to know who sought and received admissions and who were their sponsors.”