A tweet today from CJ reporter Darcy Costello featured a photo of a triumphant Megan Rabinoe with the caption:

"When someone tells you to records request a document but you get it from a source instead."

https://mobile.twitter.com/dctello/status/1145062528218783746

It reminded me of a case currently pending in the Kentucky Court of Appeals which the Spencer County Magnet reported on late last year.

The City of Taylorsville appealed an adverse ruling issued by the attorney general's open records staff in a case involving access to ethics complaints.

The staff determined that the city improperly withheld the records from local government watchdog, Lawrence Trageser. Trageser obtained additional information concerning the complaints from a source and posted the information on his blog.

In its appeal to the Spencer Circuit Court, the city asked the court to reverse the open records decision issued by the OAG.

But the city took the case one very dangerous step further when it asked that the court impose compensatory and punitive damages on Trageser for improperly obtaining and publishing records that — notwithstanding the attorney general's legal conclusions — the city maintained were statutorily protected from public access.

Trageser is not easily intimidated. He and his attorney, Jeremy Rogers — a widely recognized authority on First Amendment and open government issues and a member of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition Board of Directors — successfully defended the case in the circuit court.

In December 2018, the court affirmed the open records decision favoring Trageser and flatly rejected the city's claim for compensatory and punitive damages.

The court awarded Trageser penalties based on the maximum $25 per day for each day the records were willfully withheld. Additionally, the court awarded Rogers his attorneys fees.

Defying all logic, the city thereafter appealed the case to the Court of Appeals where it is pending.

While the case was proceeding in the circuit court, Rogers introduced me to the "Reporter Shield" law and we discussed its application to bloggers like Lawrence Trageser.

While the law extends protection to CJ reporters like Darcy Costello, the issue of its application to bloggers has not been tested in Kentucky.

Ultimately, Trageser's case did not turn on this issue. But the question lingers.

One thing is clear.

The City of Taylorsville picked the wrong man to haul into court on such legally indefensible grounds.