Freedom Foundation v. Department of Transportation

¶41 (concurring) — I concur in the result reached by my colleagues but write separately to stress that absent 49 C.F.R. § 40.321, the drug and alcohol test results of public employees working in heavily regulated industries (like common carriers) would be subject to the Public Records Act (PRA), ch. 42.56 RCW, under Washington law. Although I agree that summary judgment is proper, I do so not because a federal statute creates an exemption to PRA disclosure (which may or may not be asserted by a government agency), but because, here, federal law preempts the PRA’s “strongly worded mandate for…