The Montana Supreme Court is in Bozeman Wednesday, hearing oral arguments in a case between an investigative journalist and the State of Montana.
Jon Krakauer, author of ‘Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town’, is pressing the State Commissioner of Higher Education to release disciplinary records related to former University of Montana student and athlete Jordan Johnson.
Johnson was found not guilty in a case of sexual intercourse without consent in 2013 in Missoula County District Court.
In his book, Krakauer says the University of Montana found Johnson guilty of rape and ordered his expulsion. The Commissioner of Higher Education later vacated that decision. Krakauer is seeking records regarding that decision.
The University of Montana says federal law doesn’t allow those student records to be released.
UM law professor Anthony Johnstone says a large part of this case will come down to the state supreme court’s reading of that federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and if it can be applied in this instance.
"The main question is the balancing under our state constitution, of the right of privacy and the right to know. But there is a secondary question of whether that federal law, FERPA, applies, and if it applies, whether it trumps our state constitutional rights to obtain public disclosure of official acts."
An introduction to the case will start before oral arguments at 9:30 Wednesday morning at Montana State University in Bozeman.
Last week Beau Donaldson, a former University of Montana football player convicted of sexual intercourse without consent in 2013 became eligible for parole upon the successful completion of a pre-release program. Krakauer wrote about Donaldson in his most recent book.
