Kent County Deputy Sheriffs Ass'n v. Kent County Sheriff

When two jail guards were disciplined, the plaintiff union filed grievances and began preparing for arbitration. Its efforts included a request under the Freedom of Information Act for copies of the reports on which the sheriff based the disciplinary decisions. The sheriff refused to provide a portion of the material, and the union sued. The circuit court ruled in favor of the union, but the Court of Appeals reversed. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals, though we reject two of the three grounds for its decision.

i

In February 1995, the Kent County Sheriff suspended a jail guard for…