The lawsuit was filed after donors, ISU alumni, and employees became concerned over the handling of a 240-acre farm bequest to the ISU Agricultural Foundation. Apparently, the property was sold against the wishes of the donor, who requested the land be kept as a farm. The filers of the lawsuit felt the foundation failed to adequately account for how the $1.2 million in revenues from the sale were spent.

A lower court dismissed the case in September 2002, ruling that since the foundation was not a government body, it was exempt from the state’s open records laws. The Iowa Supreme court decision overturns that ruling and sends the matter back to district court to determine exactly which records the foundation will have to make public.

The case could have serious repercussions nationwide, as contracting out information collection and management has become more common in both the federal and state governments. There are many in the public interest community that have become concerned that such actions would freeze the public out from the data with high fees and use restrictions, information that would have been freely available if the government continued to collect it. For instance, the Government Service Administration recently turned over management of the database on roughly $290 billion worth of government contracts to a private company. This court decision might mean that the contractor would still have to provide the data in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.