State Media Co. Sues University of South Carolina Over Records Request

As reported by The State in Columbia, S.C., the State Media Co. has filed a lawsuit against the University of South Carolina for its failure to produce public records that could shed light on how the university’s projects received seemingly preferential treatment from county officials. For 11 months, the university failed to release documents for four record requests from the newspaper as required by the state’s Freedom of Information Act. In January 2020, The State first made requests for documents including contracts and payments made to university officials and marketing firms who promoted the county’s penny sales tax, as well as the university’s ties to groups that oversaw the construction of penny projects.

Over the year, the newspaper made multiple attempts to ask USC for status updates for the records but most of those efforts went unanswered. Community activist and attorney James Carpenter of Greenville, S.C., who specializes in public interest law, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the newspaper.