Jennifer P. Brown and Amye Bensenhaver participate in the third annual Law Day in downtown Louisville celebrating Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society. The event, which occurs across the country on May 1, was held on April 30 as an accommodation to Kentucky Derby activities.
Brown and Bensenhaver were joined by First Amendment and media lawyer Jeremy Rogers and Courier-Journal reporter Alfred Miller.
Rogers is a partner at Dinsmore and Shohl and has litigated many of Kentucky's seminal cases involving the public's right to know, including the University of Louisville Foundation open records case, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services child fatality records case, and — most recently — the Boston Globe/Stat v Purdue Pharma case involving access to the Kentucky Attorney General's sealed discovery files from litigation settled in 2015 — which will advance the public's understanding of the opioid crisis afflicting the nation. Rogers is also a member of the Coalition's Board of Directors.
Miller received national attention In 2017 when he was personally named — rather than the Frankfort State Journal, for which he then worked — in an open meetings appeal initiated by the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet. Miller is currently working on a year long investigation into a controversial state program under a grant from ProPublica. His first report on the program will be published in the Courier in the next few weeks. He continues to effectively and aggressively utilize the open records and meetings laws to uncover public agencies' dirty little secrets.
At noon, Brown, Bensenhaver, Rogers, and Miller engaged in a lively panel discussion of open records and open meetings. They discussed the daily challenges encountered by citizens, as well as the media, in attempting to assert existing rights under the laws as well as the looming threat of legislative revision aimed at reducing those rights under Kentucky's open government laws.
The discussion was greeted with great enthusiasm, prompting a number of fascinating revelations and a series of insightful questions from attendees. It reaffirmed the need for a new voice for citizens in the ongoing battle to preserve our rights under Kentucky's Open Government laws.
We are grateful to the Jefferson County Law Library — which sponsored the event— for the invitation to participate and to speak our minds during the noon panel discussion.
