A lawsuit filed this week shows a real gap in the state’s Right to Know law that should be addressed soon to better ensure transparency.

As reported in the Friday, Sept. 13, edition of the Butler Eagle, three news organizations filed lawsuits earlier this week in Butler County Common Pleas Court. The petitions ask a judge to order Butler County to turn over recordings of 911 calls related to the assassination attempt at the July 13 rally by former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show grounds. The Butler Eagle has also requested the 911 calls, but it is not involved with this case.

Unlike Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio, copies of 911 calls aren’t generally available in Pennsylvania, but there is an exception for when the release of recordings would be in the public’s interest. Despite that exception, the county has refused to hand them over, citing internal policy requiring a court order to release 911 call recordings.

The first step the three news organizations — Scripps, NBC News and The Intercept — took was an appeal to the state Office of Open Records, which has oversight when a Right to Know request is denied.

But despite the office acknowledging that releasing the tapes would be in the public interest, it took no action. That’s because the law doesn’t give it the power to overturn such decisions.

Whether the office does have such a right is now one of the issues raised in the lawsuit, with the news organizations all asking the court to rule that the Office of Open Records is misinterpreting the law.

We hope the ruling, when it comes, will offer some clarity on that question, and we also hope the judge rules the release of the calls is in the public interest.

But more than that, we hope this shows the legislature a gap in the Right to Know law, and one it would be easy to fix. Amending the law to make clear that the Office of Open Records can reverse decisions would solve this problem and prevent future ones.

— JK