House committee advances measure to restore public access to some attorney general records

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee voted 7-6 on Feb. 13 to re-refer House File 20 to the General Register after a debate over whether a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling has allowed the Office of the Attorney General to withhold records that do not concern an identifiable natural person.

The bill, carried by Majority Leader Niska, “just adds 2 words to section 13.65,” Niska said during testimony, and “it accomplishes 3 very important goals,” including correcting what he described as a statutory-interpretation error in the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in Energy Policy Advocates v. Ellison and restoring public accountability in the attorney general’s office.

Supporters said the court’s 4–3 majority ruling narrowed the public’s ability to see non‑individual policy and investigative files held by the AG’s office. Attorney James Dickey, who argued for Energy Policy Advocates in the litigation, told the committee that the decision “changed the traditional interpretation of the DPA” so that, in his words, “the data described by Section 13.65, Subdivision 1, are now only accessible to an individual if there is an individual who is the subject of the data.” He and other witnesses urged lawmakers to restore the prior balance between transparency and privacy.

Longtime state records official Don Gimberling, representing Minnesotans for…