August 28, 2006

Assistant AG Calls For Fewer Public Records Requests

Would it surprise you to learn that one of Tennessee's assistant attorneys general is not a friend of the public's right to know? The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government highlights a recent AP story from the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual meeting, in Nashville, in which Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter called for the news media to make fewer open-records request. Kleinfelter things government works better the more it works in secret.

Kleinfelter is Senior Counsel of the Financial Division of the Attorney General's Office in Nashville. Her talk at the NCSL was titled "Legislative Documents as Public Records: Why? Why Not?"

TCOG Executive Director Frank Gibson has a lengthy column exposing other evidence of Kleinfelter's hostility toward your right to know.

[Hat tip: Ben Cunningham]