Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- June 13, 2022
- Targets
- Dan McCaleb (The Center Square)
- Case number
- 3:22-cv-00439
- Case Status
- Dismissed
- Type of case
- Civil
- Government agency or public official involved
- Type of denial
- Change in policy or practice, Government event
Denial of Access
Court nixes editor’s access to annual judicial meeting in Tennessee
A federal judge dismissed editor Dan McCaleb’s suit against the director of Tennessee’s court administration on Nov. 20, 2024, ruling that McCaleb did not have a First Amendment right to access annual meetings of judges in the state.
McCaleb is the executive editor of Chicago-based outlet The Center Square. In June 2022, he sued Director Michelle Long of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts for access to meetings of an annual judicial conference, citing a policy Long had issued earlier that year that stipulated, “Conferences are not open meetings.”
McCaleb asked a U.S. District Court in Tennessee for a preliminary injunction compelling Long to allow in-person and virtual access to the meetings and prevent her from closing future ones. He argued that he had a First Amendment right of access to the meetings, where judges issue rules of official conduct, draft legislation and submit recommendations to the state’s General Assembly.
Initially, in March 2023, the court ordered Long to either livestream or allow in-person access to all meetings, and to provide a reason, subject to challenge, if she chose to close them. Opening the meetings “not only creates transparency and public confidence, it likely creates better rules,” the district judge wrote. The conference’s June and December meetings were livestreamed as a result, according to court documents.
But on Nov. 20, 2024, the same court allowed Long’s motion to dismiss the suit, ruling that the First Amendment did not give McCaleb a right of access to the meetings.
“There is generally no First Amendment right to access information that the government has decided not to make public,” District Judge Eli Richardson wrote.
McCaleb did not respond to a request for comment.
The executive editor of a Chicago-based news publication filed a federal lawsuit against the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts on June 13, 2022, over access to a meeting of the Tennessee Judicial Conference.
According to the Tennessean, Dan McCaleb, executive editor of The Center Square, learned on June 6 of a new policy put forth by Michelle Long, the Director of the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, preventing the public and members of the media from attending the annual meetings.
The annual conference comprises the state’s active and retired judges who meet to consider laws, draft legislation and make recommendations to the state’s general assembly. Court documents obtained by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker shows that Long, named in the lawsuit in her official capacity, approved the policy on Feb. 1, to “ensure the safety and security of conference attendees, staff, and invited speakers during AOC conferences.”
In the lawsuit, McCaleb argues that the policy violates his First Amendment right to assign reporters to cover “future Tennessee Judicial Conference meetings either virtually or in person,” and “limits necessary transparency around the state court rulemaking process.” McCaleb added that the yearly meetings “played a significant and positive role in the rulemaking process regarding federal court policy.”
During an emergency hearing on June 15, two days after McCaleb filed the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw declined to order this year’s Tennessee Judicial Conference to be opened to the public and media. Instead, according to the Tennessean, Crenshaw sided with the state’s Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter, who testified during the hearing that the conference meetings would be “entirely educational” for the attendees. While the conference will not be open to the public, McCaleb’s lawsuit will continue in federal court and can argue for future meetings to be open if the meetings discuss public policy.
In response to a request for comment, Barbara Peck, the Director of Communications for the Tennessee State Courts, directed the Tracker to the state’s filing opposing the temporary restraining order filed by McCaleb. In it, Long argues that “while the First Amendment right of access covers certain judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings and records filed in those proceedings, neither the Sixth Circuit nor the Supreme Court has ever recognized a First Amendment right of access to meetings of a state judiciary such as the TJC.”
McCaleb did not respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
