In 2018, a county judge ruled that legislative records and communications were subject to public disclosure, after a lawsuit was filed by media outlets.
The bill was passed by the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Jay Inslee after public outcry; the lawsuit was subsequently ruled in favor of the media outlets and upheld by the Washington Supreme Court.
[1] The Washington Coalition for Open Government (COG) was formed from several political groups in June 1971 to push for public disclosure legislation.
[13] Other public records requests related to sexual harassment and misconduct allegations levied against state legislators were also denied.
[14] On September 12, 2017, the Associated Press and other Washingtonian news organizations filed a lawsuit against the state legislature over the alleged exemption for daily schedules, emails, text messages, and other correspondence related to legislative work.
[13] The lawsuit was heard in the Thurston County Superior Court, where a judge ruled in favor of the media coalition, finding that the offices of individual legislators were subject to the Public Records Act.
[16] The ruling was upheld by a 7–2 decision of the Washington Supreme Court on December 19, 2019, but administrative offices were excluded from the definition of state agencies.
[27] The Seattle Times sent a questionnaire on the issue to all 147 state legislators that was returned with 40 percent of respondents across party lines planned to not withhold records under the ruling.