The Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by the a trial court, saying the U.S. Copyright Act does not conflict with the Tennessee Public Records Act and that Metro Nashville police can allow "personal inspection" of the records it collected after the Covenant School shooting.
The Tennessee Department of Correction successfully evaded a Knox County judge's order to release by the close of the business day yesterday public records about the expiration date of the drugs set to be used in the upcoming execution of Harold Wayne Nichols. The execution proceeded this morning. However, the Court of Appeals that issued a temporary stay on the judge's order on Wednesday evening has not ruled yet on whether to grant the state's request for an interlocutory appeal of the judge's order or on the judge's finding that the records were being wrongly withheld by the state. Megan Kerrigan with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee had sought [...]
A Davidson County judge rejected one of the Tennessee Highway Patrol's reasons for withholding records about a series of immigration stops in Nashville in May, but said another hearing would be held to determine how an exemption on personal information might apply to withholding information about trooper's identies.
A Tennessee Court of Appeals heard arguments in a case in which Nashville government denied access to records it collected in the Covenant School shooting that were created by the shooter, Audrey Hale. The parents of the children at the school argued that because they owned the copyright -- given to them by the shooter's parents -- Metro Nashville could not release them. A lower court agreed with the parents, ruling that the Copyright Act preempts the state's public records law.
More than two years after a shooter blasted into the Covenant School in Nashville and killed six people, including three third-graders, the Metro Nashville Police Department on April 2 released a 48-page investigative case summary officially announcing the end of the case. Records of shooter's writings collected by police continue to be part of a lawsuit on appeal at the Court of Appeals in which a chancellor ruled copyright prevented their release.
