tennessee

About Deborah Fisher

Deborah Fisher has been executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government since 2013. Previously she spent 25 years in the news industry as a journalist.
15 Jan, 2021

Revised bill aims to stop harassment from public records requesters

By |2021-02-02T14:40:26-06:00January 15, 2021|Categories: Legislature, requests|0 Comments

State Senator Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, is bringing back a bill to give government entities tools to stop harassment from public records requesters. A bill to give government officials tools to stop what they view as harassment through public records requests was filed this week by state Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin. The bill is similar to a version that failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee last year on a 5-4 vote, but has some key changes. After the bill failed last year, Haile asked the Advisory Committee on Open Government to review it and give suggestions. State Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, is carrying the House version. Haile plans more changes to [...]

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6 Jan, 2021

Knox County sheriff to appeal judge’s decision in public records case

By |2021-01-27T16:50:01-06:00January 6, 2021|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

The Knox County Sheriff's Office has filed notice to appeal its loss in a public records case in which the judge found it violated the law in denying access to records requested by a University of Tennessee professor. Chancellor John Weaver in April ordered the sheriff's office to comply with provisions of the public records act governing responses to public records requests and to implement a system to allow public inspection of arrest records. Weaver in December also awarded $78,007 in attorney's fees to the professor who had to bring the lawsuit to force the sheriff's office to turn over records. Knox County Law Director David Buuck's office has filed [...]

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2 Dec, 2020

Citizen wins $78K in attorney’s fees, expenses in public records suit against Knox County sheriff

By |2021-01-27T16:51:19-06:00December 2, 2020|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

A Knox County judge last week awarded $78,007 in attorney's fees and expenses to a citizen who took the Knox County Sheriff to court for violating the public records law. Meghan Conley was awarded $78K for attorney's fees and expenses. The decision is another blow to the Knox County Sheriff's Office in a case replete with remarkable claims about the office's inability to locate public records or produce even the most basic records, such as arrest records, for inspection. Chancellor John Weaver had earlier found that the Knox County sheriff had violated the public records law by denying University of Tennessee sociology professor Meghan Conley access to arrest records and [...]

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2 Nov, 2020

TN Democratic Party’s public records suit over absentee ballots misfires

By |2021-01-27T17:03:42-06:00November 2, 2020|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, state records|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Moskal denied a request for an injunction to force the production of data that could show which Tennesseans have not yet returned absentee ballots. Her ruling was based largely on lack of proof that a public records request for the data had actually been made. In an election eve hearing today, attorney Benjamin Gastel of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, argued that his client, the Tennessee Democratic Party, and the other plaintiff, the Marquita Bradshaw for Senate Campaign, had requested the data from five county election commissions and the Secretary of State's office. Chancellor Patricia Moskal Gastel said they wanted to find out the names of the [...]

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19 Oct, 2020

WUOT reporter obtains White House COVID-19 report

By |2020-10-19T15:14:21-05:00October 19, 2020|Categories: Journalism, state records|Tags: , |1 Comment

WUOT 91.9 FM reporter Claire Heddles demonstrated last week that making a public records request to the right person is sometimes all it takes. The White House Coronavirus Task Force is distributing to governors a weekly report on the COVID-19 epidemic. The task force does not make the reports available to the public, but they have been released in some states by local and state officials. In Tennessee, however, Gov. Bill Lee downplayed the importance of releasing those reports in a press conference last week with Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey. And the Center for Public Integrity, which has been compiling the task force reports from various states, lists Tennessee among [...]

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