Access advocates weigh in on The Courier Journal's victory in the City of Louisville's open records appeal from lower court rulings affirming the public's right of access to the City's fail bid proposal for Amazon' second headquarters.

https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2019/2018-ca-001…

On August 13, the Kentucky Supreme Court exercised its discretion against reviewing the Court of Appeals' opinion.

The city defended its decision to exhaust all possible appeals in an official statement:

"We took this to the courts not because of concern about this particular proposal, but because of concerns about how future economic development projects — which may need or want to remain confidential until a business location decision is made — could be impacted by the question about what is and is not exempt under Kentucky's Open Records law."

Odd, given the fact that Louisville openly courted Amazon and neither the city nor Amazon made any secret of the "business location decision," a prerequisite for invoking the exception upon which the city relied.

In any event, now the city has its final answer about "what is and is not exempt under the Kentucky Open Records Law."

An important ruling insofar as it emphasizes that the exceptions to the law — including the preliminary documents exceptions — must be narrowly construed.

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=48230