public records lawsuits Tennessee Archives - Page 15 of 20 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

29 May, 2015

Supreme Court case will decide public access to police files

By Deborah Fisher|2018-08-06T08:57:49-05:00May 29, 2015|Categories: crime records, investigative exemption, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Janet Kleinfelter|0 Comments

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - News media organizations on Thursday asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to rule that some police records should be open to the public, even during an investigation and trial, while attorneys for the government argued that court rules put those records off-limits. The Tennessean requested police records involving former Vanderbilt football players charged in the 2013 rape of a fellow student in a campus dormitory. Metro Nashville Police denied the request and the newspaper sued, along with other news media organizations, including The Associated Press. At a Thursday hearing, government attorneys argued that a court rule protects evidence in a police file from public scrutiny until after [...]

2 Apr, 2015

Judge denies open records lawsuit against Haslam

By Deborah Fisher|2015-04-02T07:00:09-05:00April 2, 2015|Categories: economic development, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Bill Haslam, Brett Carter, Chancellor Carol McCoy, open records, Revenue Commissioner Richard Roberts, tax records|0 Comments

By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press A tax attorney who sued for the release of records from Gov. Bill Haslam's administration related to a $350,000 analysis of business tax collections in Tennessee said Tuesday that he likely will appeal a judge's denial of his open records lawsuit. Attorney Brett Carter had filed the lawsuit in chancery court alleging a "willful" violation of the Tennessee Open Records Act over the state finance and revenue departments' refusal to disclose details about how they decided to draft the Revenue Modernization Act that Haslam has proposed to lawmakers this year. But Chancellor Carol McCoy on Monday denied Carter's lawsuit after reviewing some of the requested materials [...]

23 Mar, 2015

NFOIC and SPJ combine war chests to fight for Freedom of Information

By Deborah Fisher|2015-03-23T13:23:48-05:00March 23, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: litigation, NFOIC, SPJ, TCOG news|0 Comments

Joint press release from SPJ-NFOIC. (TCOG is a member of NFOIC): INDIANAPOLIS/Jefferson City - The Society of Professional Journalists and the National Freedom of Information Coalition are joining forces - and legal war chests - to help citizens and journalists fight for public records. The two groups will band together to help litigants who sue for access to government information. The NFOIC can provide court fees and SPJ help for attorney fees. Both organizations also will use their combined national networks of journalists and citizens to apply public pressure to government agencies that flaunt the law. "This is such an exciting collaborative project, one that will lend significant weight to [...]

28 Jan, 2015

Judge’s order in case about Sumner County Board of Education’s restrictive request policy

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-28T12:26:49-06:00January 28, 2015|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: Jeremy Johnson, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, public records request, Sumner County School Board|0 Comments

Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay signed an order last week denying a summary judgment to the Sumner County Board of Education in a public records case about its restrictive request policy. The order reflects the findings in a hearing on Jan. 9, when the school board argued that it had the right to essentially ban citizens from calling or emailing to make a request to view public records, and instead to require all such requests to be mailed by U.S. Postal Service, or made in person. The lawsuit was filed by Ken Jakes, who had emailed the school board's community relations supervisor, Jeremy Johnson, asking to see the district's public [...]

19 Jan, 2015

Tennessee Supreme Court agrees to hear public records case involving police files

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-19T10:30:15-06:00January 19, 2015|Categories: crime records, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: crime records, Lauren Sturm, Nashville, Robb Harvey, Tennessee Supreme Court, The Tennessean, Vanderbilt rape case|0 Comments

The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted the application of The Tennessean and other media organizations to appeal a Court of Appeals decision regarding what police records are exempt from the Tennessee Public Records Act. In a Sept. 30 ruling, the Court of Appeals said that Criminal Court Rule 16(a)(2) acts as an exemption to allow police to withhold records relevant to an ongoing investigation. The opinion was written by Judge Richard Dinkins and joined by Judge Frank G. Clement Jr. and reversed a trial court ruling that police must release some records. A dissent was written by Judge Neal McBrayer, who said that the criminal court rule exempted some records, [...]