FRANKFORT, Ky. ― Kentucky’s attorney general has ratcheted up his dispute with the state’s flagship university in an open-records case that spurred the school to sue its campus newspaper after it asked for investigative documents pertaining to a professor under investigation for alleged sexual harassment.
In the latest twist, Attorney General Andy Beshear said Wednesday that he will ask a judge to order the University of Kentucky to turn over the documents to his office. He said his office is entitled by law to review the records to determine if they are exempt from public inspection.
In a rebuke of a school with legions of alumni and fans statewide, Beshear said UK’s lawsuit “stabs at the very heart” of the state’s open-records law and the AG’s ability to enforce them.
Beshear acknowledged his attempted intervention was highly unusual, but said the stakes are “too important and the ramifications are simply too great.”
“UK’s lawsuit would create a silver bullet that would allow any bad actor to entirely avoid the open-records law,” Beshear told reporters. “For a university to push such a position is entirely irresponsible, especially one that rightfully touts a First Amendment center.”
Beshear is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit that UK filed recently in Fayette County Circuit Court against the Kentucky Kernel, the Lexington campus’ student-run newspaper.
The suit appeals an earlier opinion by Beshear’s office that said the university violated the open-records law by withholding documents regarding the professor’s case from the Kernel.
