State Ex Rel. Morke v. Donnelly

Thomas Morke appeals from an order quashing his petition for an alternative writ of mandamus to compel disclosure of public records by Jennifer Donnelly, records custodian of the department of health and social services, under sec. 19.37(l)(a), Stats. Under that statute, if the custodian of a public record rejects a request for access to the record, the requester may bring an action for mandamus asking a court to *221order release of the record. The issue is whether the trial court abused its discretion when it quashed the petition without inspecting the records Morke sought to reach. Since the…