Toni Chadwick has been named as the new open records counsel for the Office of Open Records Counsel for Tennessee. The office provides resources and answers questions about public records and open meetings laws and provides occasional advisory opinions and informal mediation. Chadwick takes over from Maria Bush, who held the job for about a year and a half.
State House Speaker Cameron Sexton faces a First Amendment lawsuit over House rules that bar members of the public from holding signs, including those on 8.5x11 pieces of paper, in committee rooms. Three women were kicked out for continuing hold their signs during a House Civil Justice subcommittee meeting that was hearing various public safety bills during the special session.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth has filed a bill for the special session next week that would close autopsies and other reports of medical examiners in cases involving "victims of violent crime who are minors." The bill, HB 7007, seeks to make those reports and autopsies of children who are 17 and younger "not public documents."
It's time to allow cameras in federal courts, arguably the most powerful branch of government. Media reports about what happens in federal courts are incomplete and merely an interpretation of by reporters. Allowing TV cameras in courts would allow the public to directly see how judicial branch decisions are made.
In a victory for transparency that we should all hopes sticks, an advisory commission that recommends court rules on practices and procedures has started holding meetings open to the public. The open meetings are the result of a federal lawsuit and an order by the judge that said the First Amendment right of access to court proceedings likely requires the meetings to be open.
