A major development in the ongoing story of misinterpretation and abuse of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law aimed at protecting student privacy but widely used by educational institutions to shield themselves from public scrutiny.

The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information reports that it has submitted an amicus (friend of the Court) brief to the United State's Supreme Court in support of author Jon Krakauer's petition for review of a Montana FERPA case. Six media companies and open government organizations joined in the brief "that would shed light on how state education officials handled a high-profile sexual assault claim involving a star college athlete" at the University of Montana.

Krakauer is the author of "Into the Wild" and " Into Thin Air."

The university denied Krakauer access to records relating to a case involving a UM quarterback, Clayton Christian, accused of sexually assaulting a classmate.

The Brechner Center reports that "Krakauer's case has cycled through Montana state courts for the past five years, ending with a July 2019 ruling from the Montana Supreme Court accepting the state's contention that Christian's records cannot be released without giving away confidential information, exposing the state to federal sanctions as a FERPA violator. Krakauer is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the state-court ruling."

In its brief, the Brechner Center argues, "Journalists keeping watch over the integrity and safety of schools and colleges regularly are forced to go to court because hidebound institutions take advantage of the middle of contradictory judicial interpretations of FERPA to opportunistically conceal unflattering records."