state records

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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19 Oct, 2020

ACOG subcommittee to meet on Friday to review college president search confidentiality

By |2020-10-19T13:29:07-05:00October 19, 2020|Categories: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Legislature, state records|Tags: , , |1 Comment

A subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Open Government will meet on Friday to review a 2018 change in the law that expanded confidentiality for college president candidates at state colleges. The subcommittee will meet at 3 p.m. Friday via a Webex conference call. The public may attend with this link. The subcommittee has been asked to discuss the effectiveness of the 2018 amendment to the higher education executive search statute (Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-7-154) in preparation of a report from ACOG to the governor and speakers of the House and Senate. 2018 law expanded confidentiality of finalist candidates In 2018, the Legislature expanded the confidentiality of college president [...]

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12 Aug, 2014

Appeals Court hears arguments on reach of execution drug secrecy

By |2014-08-12T09:58:01-05:00August 12, 2014|Categories: execution drugs|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

The Tennessean covered the arguments before the Court of Appeals Monday concerning an exemption to the Tennessee Public Records Act passed in 2013 that makes the source of execution drugs confidential. Lawyers for death row inmates sought to have the source revealed to them so they could examine whether the source was safe and legal, and whether it would violate inmate rights to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ordered the information released to the lawyers under seal. The state is appealing Bonnyman's ruling. An excerpt from reporter Brian Haas' story: The appeals panel Monday seemed skeptical of Hixson's arguments, pressing him on whether the 2013 law applied [...]

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4 Jun, 2014

Update: Chattanooga judges release job applications after AG’s advice

By |2017-01-06T15:26:27-06:00June 4, 2014|Categories: Attorney General Opinions, state records|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffery Atherton Hamilton County Chancellor Frank Brown In a story being followed by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, two judges who had denied the newspaper access to job applications for the county's Clerk and Master position reversed course and released the documents. The judges had originally told the Times Free Press that even if the applications were public records, they thought the privacy of the applicants "outweigh the public's right to know." They then sealed the records by issuing a court order in a highly unusual move considering there was no current litigation before them in which they had jurisdiction to issue an [...]

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