Attorneys for Brigham Young University and The Salt Lake Tribune came to the Utah Supreme Court seeking a definitive answer to one question: Has BYU’s police force always been subject to the state’s open records law?
Among them: Who gave the department its policing powers? How does BYUPD fit into state law?
And why should they even weigh in on this dispute, given that state legislators decided earlier this year that BYU’s department is now subject to the records law?
Friday’s hearing is the culmination of a three-year battle between the newspaper and BYU, a private university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.