(The Center Square) – The Washington State Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected the city of Seattle’s appeal of a ruling in favor of a podcaster who sued over violations of the Public Records Act.
The case started back in 2023 when Brandi Kruse, host of the unDivided podcast, filed a public records request related to a city council vote.
“It’s been a really long case, and we hoped that the State Supreme Court would make this decision. I think this was the city of Seattle, just hoping the state’s high court would throw them a lifeline on this case,” said Kruse in a Monday interview with The Center Square.
In June 2023, then Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis delivered a surprising “no” vote on an ordinance that would have given police tools to crack down on open drug use downtown.
He was widely expected to vote ‘yes’ on the ordinance and his was the deciding vote that killed the ordinance that would have made it illegal to use drugs in public in Seattle.
Kruse requested emails, texts, and voicemails related to an unexpected vote on a drug policy by a councilmember in June 2023.
It was a narrow request for communications over several hours of time, so Kruse expected the request could be filled in a matter of weeks.
Instead, the city filled part one of the request a few days after the August primary, and notified Kruse the second batch would be provided by November 11, a few days after the general election, where the councilmember was on the ballot.
Kruse elicited the help of Citizen Action Defense Fund and Executive Director Jackson Maynard.
In the discovery phase of a lawsuit, Maynard learned that the city of Seattle’s public records officer had taken leave and never been replaced. The city failed to post a job opening as required by law.
A King County judge sided with the city in spring of 2025, but upon appeal Kruse won a unanimous ruling from the Division One Court of Appeals.
The city then appealed to the State Supreme Court, which unanimously denied the city’s case on Monday.
“We are incredibly pleased that the court unanimously rejected the City of Seattle’s appeal from our unanimous victory in the Division One Court of Appeals,” wrote Maynard.
“This case was always about defending the right of reporters like our client, Brandi Kruse, and other members of the public to obtain information in a timely way to hold the government accountable.”
The Center Square reached out to the city of Seattle to inquire about the case and how much has been spent in legal fees since 2023, but did not receive a response.
“It makes no sense for the city to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees in a case in which they so clearly violated their own policies,” Maynard said.
“We look forward to returning to the trial court to get a final judgment as to our reasonable fees and costs and the mandatory penalty available to our client under the public records act.”
Kruse told The Center Square that CADF offered the city of Seattle multiple opportunities to settle the case and pay minimal penalties for violations of the Public Records Act, but the city refused.
“It was kind of wild that the city of Seattle would continue to try to press the issue on this case and go all the way to the State Supreme Court after we had a unanimous ruling from the Court of Appeals,” said Kruse.
“They persisted and wanted to draw this out and I think for no other reason than they don’t like my politics and probably didn’t want to settle a case with me,” said Kruse. Ultimately their unwillingness to do that is going to cost the taxpayers much more.”