The Tennessee Open Records Act (TORA) is a
freedom of information law enacted in
Tennessee in 1957. The law that states that any citizen of
Tennessee may request public records there.
Provisions and applicability
The law states that documents shall "be open for personal inspection by any citizen of Tennessee." Despite the law's provisions,
federal court rulings have overturned similar state specific statutes and open up records in these states to all
U.S. citizens
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitut ...
.
In a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling
McBurney v. Young
''McBurney v. Young'', , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld Virginia and all states' right to restrict citizen requests for state government documents to citizens of that state.
The court rejected claims that this r ...
(2013), concerning Virginia specifically but also relevant to Tennessee, upheld that states can restrict open records to their citizens. However, open records counsel Ann V. Butterworth also stated that the law ''"does not forbid providing access to others"''.
See also
*
Freedom of Information Act, a federal freedom of information law
References
External links
*
Tennessee
Tennessee law
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