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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) secured a major victory in its lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro), as the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville rejected Metro’s attempt to keep nearly all records related to the March 27, 2023, Covenant school shooting concealed from the public. This ruling reverses most of a lower court decision that allowed Metro officials to withhold the shooter’s “manifesto” in full.
The appeals court’s ruling made clear that government agencies cannot rely on sweeping legal theories to justify total secrecy, and must instead conduct a record-by-record review, redacting only what is lawfully protected and releasing the rest under Tennessee’s Public Records Act. The court also emphasized that federal copyright law does not override Tennessee’s Public Records Act.
On April 24, 2023, AFL’s client, Michael Patrick Leahy of Star News Digital Media, Inc., requested that the Metro Nashville Police release the shooter’s manifesto and autopsy report related to the brutal murder of three children and three adults at The Covenant School. After initially denying the requests, Metro publicly announced it would release the records, only to abruptly reverse course the next day.
AFL filed a lawsuit on May 11, 2023, calling for the release of all records and documents obtained by the Metro Nashville Police Department from search warrants issued in the wake of the shooting. Through that litigation, AFL learned that there are over 100 gigabytes of material, of which only a couple of thousand pages were released — not by Metro — but by the FBI. There is substantially more information, including videos taken by the shooter, currently in Metro’s possession, still being withheld from the public.
“This ruling is a clear rejection of Nashville’s attempt to keep the public in the dark,” said Gene Hamilton, President of America First Legal. “For nearly three years, government officials blocked the public from seeing records they have a right to inspect. Transparency matters. Especially when government power is used to suppress information after a tragedy.”
“It should never have taken three years for a court to confirm what was obvious from day one: these records are public records. Tennesseans have a right to know what happened and why,” said Nick Barry, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Hiding public records for political ends is anti-democratic. Metro should immediately release the documents that AFL’s client has requested.”
AFL will continue to fight for transparency, defend the rule of law, and protect Americans from unaccountable government secrecy.
Read the court’s opinion here.
Learn more about this case here.
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