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Inquirer goes to court over sealed measles death records in Franklin County, Pa.

Franklin County' coroner reported a measles-related death earlier this month.

A sign on the door of a primary care clinic in Lancaster County directs patients who suspect they have measles to use a separate entrance.
A sign on the door of a primary care clinic in Lancaster County directs patients who suspect they have measles to use a separate entrance. Read moreAidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer

A Franklin County judge ordered that information about a measles-related death be sealed from public review, prompting The Philadelphia Inquirer to take legal action.

The Inquirer sought death record information for a 39-year-old woman in Franklin County who died earlier this month after contracting measles. The death, announced by the county coroner’s office, marked the sixth in Pennsylvania’s ongoing outbreak, which has sickened nearly 1,400 people and is the largest the nation has seen in three decades.

Pennsylvania requires the disclosure of certain death record details — including name, manner of death and cause of death — when requested through public records laws.

Franklin County provided the cause of death, which Coroner John Conner described as “a probable acute cardiac event due to possible complications of the measles.”

But the coroner’s office denied part of The Inquirer’s request, and did not provide the woman’s name.

In addition, a judge ordered the records sealed in Franklin County Orphan’s Court.

Death record information for previous measles-related deaths has been released to The Inquirer and other media outlets by coroners in Lancaster, Jefferson, and Dauphin Counties. Details in such cases are considered especially vital to the public interest because of the implications for public health.

In the Franklin court order, President Judge Shawn D. Meyers said that publicly disclosing personally identifying information would “cause a clearly defined and serious injury” to the woman and her family, “including interference with their religious practice as members of the Amish community.”

No other county has challenged The Inquirer’s right to access death record information, and complete death record information was provided for three other deaths known to involve members of the Amish community. It has been particularly hard hit by the outbreak due to low vaccination rates.

On Oct. 26, The Inquirer filed a petition to vacate the judge’s order and require the county to release the records.

“This kind of information is critically important not just for journalists, but for researchers, doctors, and the public to understand whether there is a critical public safety issue,” said Paula Knudsen Burke, Pennsylvania-based attorney for the national nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which provides free legal services to journalists and is representing The Inquirer. “We have to understand, as a society, how people die.”

The Inquirer’s petition argued that Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law does not give people special privacy protection because of their religion. The petition also argues that under state law, deceased individuals do not have privacy rights, and that even if such privacy rights existed, the coroner “is without authority to assert them.”

A spokesperson for Franklin County did not respond to a request for comment.

Pennsylvania courts have consistently ruled in favor of transparency when public access to death information is challenged.

Last year, a Lancaster County judge ruled that the coroner’s attempt to withhold death record information “defies law and logic.” The news outlet LNP / LancasterOnline had sought the name of a 3-year-old boy who died after accidentally shooting himself at a campground in 2023.

The reporting of measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania at times has spurred clashes between state and federal leaders.

The state has confirmed five “measles-associated deaths” and are investigating the sixth death reported by the Franklin County coroner.

The deceased include two infants from Amish families in Lancaster County and a 20-year-old woman who had leukemia and died of measles pneumonia in Dauphin County. Additionally, an 18-year-old in Mifflin County died from a serious neurological complication of measles, and a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County with severe chronic health conditions died from respiratory failure and measles. All were unvaccinated.

The CDC is still not publicly reporting all of Pennsylvania’s measles-associated deaths, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, initially said the state may have “fabricated” two deaths.

As of Friday, the agency listed three deaths on its website, though it has not specified where in the U.S. the deaths occurred.