Dan Shelley, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Radio Television Digital News Association | Radio Television Digital News Foundation, urged legislative leaders not to override Governor Beshear's veto of HB 312 by letter dated March 24.

Shelley's letter was submitted "on behalf of the broadcast and digital journalist members of the Radio Television Digital News Association who live in Kentucky and work at television and radio stations, and digital news media outlets, throughout the Commonwealth" and "members of the public whom those journalists serve by seeking and reporting the truth, in this case as it relates to access to state government records so that the people of the Commonwealth have access to critical information regarding what their elected representatives and other public servants are doing in their name and on their behalf."

In the letter, Shelley chiefly objects to the "overbroad and overreaching authority" HB 312 vests in the Legislative Research Commission "to deny valid state public records requests, drastically limiting citizens', including journalists', ability to appeal adverse decisions to any judicial body," giving "the LRC virtually unrestricted and unchecked decision-making authority with little to no accountability to ensure its decisions comply with the Kentucky Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth."

Further, Shelley opposes HB 312's reversal of "the presumption, as it exists in the Commonwealth's current open records law, that public records are considered open unless an agency can demonstrate satisfactorily that they should be exempt."

In closing, Shelley quotes U.S. Supreme Court Louis Brandeis, "a native son of Kentucky, [who] famously wrote shortly before joining the nation's highest court, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."

He concludes with a request that legislative leadership "act in this matter consistent with the admonition that Justice Brandeis so wisely asseverated."

The threat posed by HB 312 is clearly recognized beyond Kentucky's borders.