The Tennessee Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which a lower court judge refused to unseal court records in a test of the First Amendment right of access by the public to court proceedings and court documents.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has refused to release documents about its grants to cryptocurrency companies, including one in Knoxville, and is now fighting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from a journalist and UT professor over it. TVA claims that releasing how much it gave the company in economic incentives would reveal its own trade secrets and violate the privacy rights of the employees in the companies that received the grants.
Late last year, the city of Memphis wrote a $7,419.68 check to reimburse the attorney fees of journalist Marc Perrusquia rather than risk losing a public records lawsuit. The city folded before the case got before a judge. Something similar happened this summer in Knoxville when University of Tennessee threw in the towel on the eve of a public hearing in a public records case after stalling for more than a year and half. Tennessee ranked 45th in complying with public records requests, according to one study. We need fewer delays and better compliance with the law.
Much attention has been given to a ruling by Chancellor I'Ashea Myles blocking release of the Covenant School shooter's manifesto and other writings. But a closer look at the ruling shows that she has cleared the way for release of other records in the case as soon as police officially finish their investigation. In March, police said the investigation would be over in June. In mid-June, they said it would be over in July. So is a release of records imminent?
The problem with the court's witch hunt into the leak of police records about the Covenant School shooting is that truthful information about the shooting and shooter is being reported to the public from records that should already have been made public. But the records are being held up by a chancellor now more interested in finding and punishing the "leaker" and possibly even the press.
