Wisconsin Supreme Court says COVID data about cases at businesses can be released

Wisconsin Supreme Court says COVID data about cases at businesses can be released 

By Mitchell Schmidt
Wisconsin State Journal

A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state's health department can release data on businesses where multiple COVID-19 cases occurred, closing the loop on a roughly two-year-old public records case pitting businesses’ right to privacy against the public’s right to information.

The court issued a 4-3 decision — with the court's three liberal justices, Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Jill Karofsky, along with conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, a regular swing vote on the state's high court — ruling against Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business organization. WMC filed the lawsuit in October 2020 after the state Department of Health Services announced plans that summer to release information pertaining to positive COVID-19 cases at businesses in order to comply with public records requests from media outlets.

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