The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide if the public has a constitutional right to watch the officials who write the rules for the legal system. On Tuesday, the Liberty Justice Center filed a petition in the case McCaleb v. Long, challenging a lower court ruling that allows Tennessee’s Judicial Advisory Commission to keep its doors locked to the press and the public.
The legal battle centers on Dan McCaleb, the executive editor of the news outlet The Center Square. McCaleb was barred from attending meetings where the Commission debates and recommends changes to state court rules—meetings that had been open to the public for 35 years before a policy shift in 2018.
The Liberty Justice Center argues that this sudden move toward secrecy violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press.
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However, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals previously sided with the state. The appellate judges ruled that the Commission’s meetings are “advisory, not adjudicatory.”
Because the group suggests rules rather than decides active legal cases, the court held that it falls outside the transparency framework usually required for trials or government boards. Judge Cole concurred in the judgment, upholding the closure.
The Liberty Justice Center argues this distinction is a blow to government transparency.
“Meetings on matters of public importance should be open to the public, including the media,” said Reilly Stephens, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. Stephens expressed disappointment that the Sixth Circuit “chose to side with the public officials hiding their public duties from scrutiny,” especially since the meetings were previously accessible.
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According to the petition, these sessions should not be removed from public view just because it is “inconvenient to those in power.”
The legal team is asking the High Court to intervene and protect the rights of both journalists and the citizens who rely on their reporting to understand how their state government functions. If the Supreme Court takes the case, the ruling could finally clarify whether the First Amendment forces advisory commissions to do their work in the light of day.
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