A First Amendment expert said in an interview with the New York Post this week that blocking the release of the manifesto of the transgender-identifying woman who shot six people at a Nashville Christian school would be unprecedented.

Deborah Fisher, the executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, told the Post that there was no real history of victims being able to prevent the release of public crime records. Fisher is also the director of Middle Tennessee State University’s John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies. 

“There’s nothing really to indicate that there would be this ability for victims to veto the release of otherwise public records and in, and in this case, crime records,” she told the Post.

“In this case, the perpetrator is dead,” she added. “But if the shooter had gone to trial, most likely the writings of the shooter would be part of the evidence in the case about motivation.”

Fisher’s comments come after a group of parents and school officials have moved to keep the manifesto of the 28-year-old woman who killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in March. The Daily Wire is not naming the shooter in keeping with a company policy that seeks to deprive mass killers of the notoriety they often crave.

Fisher said that laws protecting Tennessee victims did not have “carte blanche” authority over open record laws. 

“I don’t think that in that situation, the victims could veto those being submitted in a public trial, and I don’t think that they can veto them being released as crime evidence in a case that doesn’t go to trial because the person is dead,” Fisher said. 

Victims do have privacy rights established in Tennessee law, but Fisher said that veto power over crime records would be a new development. 

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“There are a lot of reasons not to think that there was ever any intention that there’d be an unspecified kind of veto right of victims to prevent the release of public records,” she said. “If the courts do conclude that victims have a veto over the release of crime records, that would create a whole new equation in Tennessee about what the public gets to know about crime or even possibly criminal trials.”

Several news outlets, including The Daily Wire, have requested copies of the manifesto through open records laws, but have so far been denied. A lawsuit is ongoing as to whether Metro Nashville Police will be allowed to release the manifesto. 

Victims of the shooting included three students — Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9; William Kinney, 9 — and three staff members — headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Mike Hill, 61.

The shooter was shot and killed by Nashville police, who found five laptops, a suicide note, two memoirs, five Covenant School yearbooks, and seven cellphones at the shooter’s property.

In a new re-election campaign ad, Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says that he does not support sex change surgeries on children, despite the fact that he vetoed a bill banning the surgeries earlier this year. 

Beshear, who is up for election in November, said that he does not support transgender surgeries for kids, but the Democrat has voiced support for other life-altering transgender procedures like puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. 

“I’ve never supported gender-reassignment surgery for kids and those procedures don’t happen here in Kentucky. When I took office, I vowed to support parents because as parents we know what’s best for our kids, not politicians in Frankfort or Washington,” Beshear said in the new ad, which was released this week. 

In March, Beshear vetoed a bill that banned puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgeries like performing double mastectomies on girls who say they are boys. The bill also allowed teachers to not be compelled to use students’ so-called preferred pronouns and prohibits the teaching of gender ideology at schools.

The bill later became law after Republicans in the House voted 76-23 and 29-8 in the Senate to override the veto. A federal judge has since blocked the implementation of the bill’s prohibition of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, procedures that can be linked with osteoporosis and fertility issues. 

“Andy Beshear has always been clear that he does not support gender reassignment surgery for minors – which doesn’t happen in Kentucky,” Beshear campaign manager Eric Hyers said. “Daniel Cameron and his allies are pushing a blatantly false attack because they know they can’t win talking about Cameron’s record, which includes supporting cuts to teacher pensions and backing schemes to divert money out of our public schools.” 

Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general, is challenging Beshear in the gubernatorial race this November. In 2020, former President Donald Trump won Kentucky by over 25 percentage points. 

“Andy Beshear supports sex-change surgeries for kids because he vetoed the bill banning them in March,” Sean Southard, the communications director for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said in a statement. “Now, in the heat of a campaign, Andy Beshear is misleading voters about his true beliefs. It’s a shame, and Kentuckians are smart enough to see through Andy Beshear’s lies.”

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In his veto message, Beshear explicitly said that kids in Kentucky would die if the legislature banned transgender hormonal procedures. 

“Improving access to gender affirming care is an important means of improving health outcomes for the transgender population. Senate Bill 150 will cause an increase in suicide among Kentucky’s youth,” he claimed. 

Many “detransitioners” have said that undergoing transgender procedures did not help their mental health. On Thursday, Chloe Cole testified before the House Judiciary Committee that she only became suicidal after doctors began to “transition” her through puberty blockers, testosterone, and removing her breasts.