public records exemption Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

5 Mar, 2017

Lawmakers question redaction of vendor names

By Deborah Fisher|2017-03-05T16:44:23-06:00March 5, 2017|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: public records exemption, State Rep. Bill Sanderson, State Sen. Ken Yager, vendor confidentiality, vendor names|0 Comments

Proposed legislation clarifying a 2016 law that made identities of certain government vendors confidential passed out of a Senate committee and House subcommittee this week after questions from lawmakers. An amendment was added in the House that would allow access to the identities by state lawmakers. The lawmakers carrying the bill for the Haslam administration said the statute needed to be clarified because the intent was only to keep confidential names of vendors who provide IT security. The earlier language caused some to be concerned the exemption was too broad, state Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, told a Senate committee on Tuesday. State Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston State Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, and [...]

TSSAA seeks carve-out from Tennessee Public Records Act

By Deborah Fisher|2020-02-23T10:10:43-06:00March 5, 2015|Categories: exemptions, functional equivalent, Legislature|Tags: Frank G. Clement Jr., functional equivalent, legislature, public records exemption, Southcomm, TSSAA|0 Comments

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is asking the Legislature on Tuesday to close records that in the past were used to expose possible cheating in recruiting high school athletes. It appears the people who regulate athletics for thousands of Tennessee youth want to be able to hide what they do and don’t do. The TSSAA, until last year, did not believe it was subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act. But a trial court and the Court of Appeals in Nashville courts affirmed that it is. Now a proposal in the Legislature, which is scheduled for the Senate State and Local Committee on Tuesday, seeks to statutorily relieve them [...]

Tennessee Supreme Court delays execution (update on drug secrecy issue)

By Deborah Fisher|2019-06-19T09:32:49-05:00December 11, 2013|Categories: execution drugs, exemptions|Tags: Claudia Bonnyman, execution drugs, public records exemption|0 Comments

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reset the execution date for Billy Ray Irick to Oct. 7, 2014, noting the issues raised in a case in Davidson County Chancery Court over the state's new one-drug lethal injection protocol. Irick had been scheduled for execution on Jan. 15, 2014. In the case before Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, attorneys for the death row inmates argue the constitutionality of the state's new protocol, which uses pentobarbital, common in animal euthanasia. Among other challenges to the protocol and use of pentobarbital, the attorneys also challenge the secrecy of a new state exemption to the Open Records Act passed last legislative session to shield the name of [...]