COLUMBUS, Ohio (WKBN) – The Ohio Supreme Court issued a decision Wednesday in a case that goes back to the height of the pandemic and a reporter’s request for death records.

In a 5-2 decision, the Court ruled that a statewide database of Ohioans with the names and addresses associated with the causes of death is not public information due to privacy issues.

The Court said the database is “protected information” and that Columbus Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow could not be granted access to it. Ludlow requested the information from the Ohio Department of Health during an investigation into COVID-19 deaths in the state and claimed that the names and addresses aren’t protected after death.

The department provided Ludlow with requested spreadsheets with vital information from death certificates, including sex, age, and cause of death, but not the names and addresses of those who died.

The court ruled that there is no difference in privacy in this context whether dead or alive.

Justice Jennifer Brunner wrote in a dissenting opinion that the information should have been granted to Ludlow saying that information provided by the local health departments to ODH’s database must be public record because, under Ohio law, “anyone can obtain the entire death certificate record by visiting the local records department,” she wrote.

In July 2020, WKBN 27 First News worked to gather local COVID-19 death statistics throughout the Valley and found that sorting through information was murky.