Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Ohio Supreme Court in CNN v. Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Local Schools. CNN appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court after its request for the release of certain high school records relating to the deceased gunman from the Aug. 4, 2019 mass shooting in Dayton was denied by a lower court. The amicus brief argues that the Court of Appeals erred as a matter of law in failing to interpret the Ohio Student Privacy Act in accordance with longstanding common law principles that an individual’s right to privacy terminates upon death when no express statutory intent to the contrary is evident. The brief also argues that the appellate court’s restrictive interpretation of the Student Privacy Act runs contrary to the principles of openness embodied in the Ohio Public Records Act. [2019]
