Top court denies newspapers' appeal 

By David Blymire
The Sentinel, Carlisle , September 18, 2004

The state's highest court did an abrupt about-face and decided not to hear a Sunshine Act case against Penn State Dickinson School of Law. 

The Sentinel and The Patriot-News appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this summer after Commonwealth Court decided in a narrow 3-2 vote earlier this year that the board of governors may meet behind closed doors.

But after deciding in July to hear the case, the high court handed down a notice Sept. 16 saying it won't hear the case and the appeal is denied.

"We were scheduled for argument in Pittsburgh on Sept. 22," said executive editor Carol Talley in commenting on the case. "It is odd that the state's high court accepted the case on an expedited basis at the beginning of July and took more than two months to suddenly reverse that decision.

"Still, we remain committed to the reasons we sued, which were to make sure the community at large would have open access to meetings where the board of governors of Penn State Dickinson School of Law would debate whether to accept a Penn State invitation to forsake Carlisle for the State College main campus."

Sentinel attorney Niles Benn was preparing to argue the appeal in Pittsburgh.

"I'm disappointed in the court not hearing our appeal -- I thought we had a great chance for success," he said. 

Still, Benn added, some positives have come out of the case, such as a new state law requiring the board of governors to hold public meetings. The legislature passed the law this summer.

The Sentinel originally had sued in Commonwealth Court to force the law school to hold public meetings after this newspaper uncovered a confidential memo from Dean Philip McConnaughay last fall detailing a $60 million "offer" from the university to relocate the law school to University Park.