State law allows government entities to require identification, such as a driver’s license, with a public records request. And some government entities will refuse to provide public records if the identification does not verify that the requester is a Tennessee resident.
Though the law doesn’t mandate identification, many government entities require it because they want to block having to respond to requesters who don’t live in Tennessee. (Tennessee statute requires public records be available to “any citizen of this state” but does not require they be made available to citizens of other states.)
Here’s what the law says about identification [T.C.A. §10-7-503(a)(7)(A)(vi)]:
(vi) A governmental entity may require any person making a request to view or make a copy of a public record to present a government-issued photo identification, if the person possesses photo identification, that includes the person’s address. If a person does not possess photo identification, the governmental entity may require other forms of identification acceptable to the governmental entity.
TCOG did a 2018 audit of identification requirements in Tennessee and found that an overwhelming majority of local and state governing bodies had voted to adopt policies with rigid identification requirements. Some have clung to the requirement even in absurd situations. For example, a Blount County commissioner who didn’t provide her driver’s license was denied access to the minutes of a public meeting of a state board that oversees jail standards even though she had asked for and received information from the board before.
