Despite OU’s petition to move student Joey Stipek’s Open Records Act lawsuit to federal court, Stipek says he will “fight his case to the bitter end.”
If the case is tried in federal court, Stipek’s attorney, Nick Harrison, could be prohibited from trying the case because he is a government employee, Harrison said.
However, Stipek said he will continue to pursue his case even if Harrison can’t defend him.
“If I can’t have Nick Harrison, I’ll just find somebody else to help me,” Stipek said.
In May, Stipek filed a lawsuit to sue OU President David Boren and the director of OU’s Open Records Office for denying him and other student journalists access to records he believes are public.
Stipek, Multidiversity Studies senior, filed a petition with the Cleveland County Court on May 10 to sue Boren and Rachel McCombs after they failed to provide him and other student journalists electronic copies or database information of parking citations issued to students in the spring 2012 semester.
In August, a Cleveland County judge heard Stipek’s case but dismissed his petition, saying Stipek should have filed the suit against OU as a whole and not Boren or McCombs.
In October, OU’s attorney, Shawnae Robey with OU General Counsel, petitioned that the case be tried in federal court because OU is claiming the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, as a defense to releasing the records, Harrison said. FERPA is a federal law meant to protect students’ educational records like transcripts or demographic information.
Since FERPA is a federal law, OU petitioned the case to be tried in federal court, Harrison said.
However, since Harrison is a Presidential Management Fellow, his government employment could prohibit him from trying Stipek’s case if it gets moved to federal court.
“If they’re successful in moving it over, and they try to disqualify me because I’m a federal employee, that makes it so he won’t have an attorney to go through, which pretty much puts an end to his case,” Harrison said.
Harrison said it will probably be several months before the federal court processes OU's petition to try the case.
When The Daily reached out to the university’s legal counsel to get a comment from Robey, OU’s spokesman Michael Nash said the university does not comment on any particulars of litigation matters.
