A school board's agreement to not say anything disparaging about a director of schools it fired violates the First Amendment free speech rights of school board members, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled in a case upholding a lower court's decision.
A federal judge declined on Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order requested by a media organization that wanted to cover the Tennessee Judicial Conference annual meeting after getting assurances from a deputy attorney general that the meeting to take place on Wednesday was only an educational "CLE for judges."
A national news organization with operations in Tennessee has filed a federal lawsuit against the director of Tennessee's court administration, claiming the blanket closure of upcoming judicial conference meetings violates First Amendment rights of access to courts.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Friday that the open meetings law applies to political parties' primary boards, but not their executive committees when the committees are determining the "bona fides" of a potential candidate.
A judge ruled that the Tennessee Republican Party's executive committee violated open meetings law when it met and decided to remove Robby Starbuck from the ballot. Starbuck wants to run in the newly redrawn 5th Congressional District race.
