Kevin Guskiewicz, in His Official Capacity as Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, et al. v. DTH Media Corporation, et al.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g, conditions federal funding on educational institutions’ compliance with certain policies and procedures to ensure the privacy of students’ educational records. But FERPA and its accompanying regulations carve out a few distinct categories of education records from the statute’s general prohibition on disclosure. As relevant here, educational institutions “may,” but are “not require[d]” to, disclose “the final results of any disciplinary proceeding . . . against a student who is an alleged perpetrator of any crime of violence . . . or a nonforcible sex offense, if the institution determines . . . that the student committed a violation of the institution’s rules or policies with respect to such crime or offense.” 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 C.F.R. § 99.31(a)(14), (d). The question presented is: Does the Supremacy Clause permit a state publicrecords law to override the discretion that FERPA grants universities over the disclosure of sexual assault disciplinary records and instead mandate that those records be publicly disclosed?