by Jon Styf
The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure will hold a Dec. 5 meeting in Nashville that the group plans to live stream after The Center Square received an injunction earlier this year to open the meetings to the public.
The Center Square Vice President of News and Content Dan McCaleb received a May injunction from a U.S. District Court judge against the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts to open the meetings.
The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at 511 Union Street, Suite 600, in Nashville. An agenda for the meeting has not been posted but links to watch the meeting via Zoom and YouTube are included with the meeting notice.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ruled in May that portions of the meetings can be closed on a “case-specific basis” if the commission can justify the closure, but the meetings should be open in general.
The commission meets to discuss potential changes to court procedures that it passes along to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which then sends the recommendations to Tennessee’s General Assembly to create changes to law.
Liberty Justice Center Senior Attorney Buck Dougherty, who is representing McCaleb, compared the meetings to The Standing Committee of the U.S. Supreme Court, which holds open meetings.
Despite the injunction, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office has continued to fight the legal battle to close the meetings.
“Opening rules advisory committee meetings, whether at the federal or state level, not only creates transparency and public confidence, it likely creates better rules,” Richardson wrote in his May injunction.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Tennessee Supreme Court” by Reading Tom. CC BY 2.0.
