Southern Illinoisan v. Department of Public Health

The defendants, the Illinois Department of Public Health and Dr. John Lumpkin, in his capacity as Director of Public Health, appeal two orders of the circuit court of Jackson County. The first order directed the defendants to release certain Illinois Cancer Registry (Registry) information to the plaintiff, the Southern Illinoisan, a daily newspaper that is based in Carbondale, Illinois, and is a division of Lee Enterprises, Inc. The second order awarded attorney fees to the plaintiff. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the first order of the circuit court and reverse the second order of…