§ 15.4 PROVISIONS OTHER THAN STATE STATUTES
Other laws and authorities that may exempt information from disclosure are discussed below.
(1) Federal laws and regulations
In addition to state statutes, federal statutes and regulations may exempt information from disclosure under the PRA. Ameriquest Mortg. Co. v. State Attorney Gen., 170 Wn.2d 418, 440, 241 P.3d 1245 (2010) (federal law should not be treated differently than state laws under RCW 42.56.070(1)). Ameriquest dealt with "whether, and to what extent, the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), 15 U.S.C.§§ 6801 -6809, and the relevant Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rule, preempt the PRA or otherwise bar" disclosure of information that the state attorney general received from a mortgage company while investigating its lending practices. 170 Wn.2d at 424. The privacy protections in the GLBA and the FTC rule apply to any "nonaffiliated third party," such as the state attorney general, that obtains "nonpublic personal information" from a "financial institution" such as Ameriquest. 15 U.S.C. § 6802(c); 16 C.F.R. § 313.11(c); Ameriquest, 170 Wn.2d at 429. The court ruled that there was no inconsistency between these federal laws and the PRA because RCW 42.56.070(1), the "other statute" exemption, allows the federal privacy protections to supplement the PRA's exemptions. Ameriquest, 170 Wn.2d at 440.
Similarly, in Freedom Foundation v. State Department of Transportation, 168 Wn.App. 278, 287-88, 276 P.3d 341 (2012), the Court of Appeals held that drug and alcohol testing results for state ferry employees could be withheld under a federal law and related regulations operating as "other statutes" under RCW 42.56.070(1). The court held that the regulation is considered to have the "force of law" to create confidentiality rights in these test results. Freedom Found., 168 Wn.App. at 290.
In West v. TESC Board of Trustees, 3 Wn.App. 2d 112, 414 P.3d 614 (2018), review denied, 191 Wn.2d 1005 (2018), the court held that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) applied to the educational records of Evergreen State College as an "other statute" exemption. The court observed FERPA contained express nondisclosure language and that compliance was an express condition of the federal funding Evergreen had accepted and that was critical to its operations. 3 Wn.App. 2d at 121-24 & n.7.
Some federal laws do not qualify as PRA exemptions. For example, the Washington Supreme Court has...
