Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee, SPJ, and other amici) filed with the Indiana Supreme Court in Indiana Dept. of Corrections v. Toomey. The case arises out of an Indiana Access to Public Records Act request for records related to lethal injection drugs in Indiana. While legal proceedings were in progress, the legislature passed a “Secrecy Statute” that purported to make lethal injection drug suppliers’ identities confidential, including retroactively. The amicus brief argues that the Secrecy Statute is an unconstitutional prior restraint and content-based restriction on speech, as well as a violation of the First Amendment right of access. The amicus brief highlights the burden imposed by the Secrecy Statute on newsgathering and the news media’s role in public scrutiny of the lethal injection process. [2020]
