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Gannett River States Publishing Corp. d/b/a The Clarion-Ledger (“The Clarion-Ledger”)
moves the Court to intervene in this action as of right pursuant to Rule 24(a)(2) of the
Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. The Clarion-Ledger seeks to intervene in order to oppose
the relief sought by Petitioner Mississippi Community Education Center (“MCEC”) and to
pursue the production of certain documents from the Mississippi Department of Human Services
(“MDHS”) pursuant to the Mississippi Public Records Act, MISS. CODE ANN. § 25-61-1, et seq.
principal place of business in McLean, Virginia. The Clarion-Ledger is a trusted source for news
and information with the largest daily newspaper circulation in the State of Mississippi, as well
2. This action was commenced by Petitioner MCEC which filed a Petition for
Protective Order on April 22, 2020, seeking an order prohibiting MDHS from producing certain
submitted two public records requests to MDHS (Dkt. #2, Ex. A), seeking copies of: (1) any
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Requests for Proposals (“RFP”) responses received by MDHS from MCEC or Nancy New from
July 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019; and (2) all emails between amcgrew@mscec.org (Anne
McGrew) and any employee of MDHS from January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2020.
4. No documents have been produced in response to the first request related to RFP
responses, even though there are some pages of the RFP responses that are not covered by
MDHS, all related to the federal welfare Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program
(“TANF”), and which MCEC claimed to be exempt from production under the Mississippi
6. The public records requests are part of The Clarion-Ledger’s ongoing coverage of
the alleged improper use of federal TANF funds by MDHS, MCEC and others, which, on May 4,
2020, Mississippi State Auditor Shad White called “the most egregious misspending my staff has
seen in their careers at the Office of State Auditor.” Exs. A (Clarion-Ledger article dated May 4,
pages of their Proposals it seeks to protect from public scrutiny in only the barest of terms (Dkt.
# 2, pp. 4-6), and makes no attempt to explain why the documents should be exempt from
production under the Public Records Act beyond the conclusory allegation that, “The Proposals
contain information that constitute confidential and financial information of a proprietary nature
8. With respect to The Clarion-Ledger’s second public records request related to the
McGrew-MDHS emails, prior to the filing of the Petition for Protective Order, MDHS made
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two productions of emails and attachments, but some of these documents were redacted. The
Clarion-Ledger does not know whether all responsive emails have been produced. See Ex. C
9. Notably, the Petition does not disclose the number of pages of emails it seeks to
shield from public scrutiny, nor does it identify any specific email by sender, recipient, date, time
or subject matter, and it advances no argument as to why any of these public records should be
exempted from production under the Mississippi Public Records Act. Rather, MCEC seeks to
block responsive emails and their attachments on the speculative grounds that, “the contents …
may also include portions of the Proposals that include trade secrets and/or confidential
added)).
10. Intervention of right should be permitted when an applicant such as The Clarion-
Ledger “claims an interest relating to the property or transaction which is subject to the action
and [it] is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede
[its] ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant’s interest is adequately represented by
11. Here, The Clarion-Ledger’s interest in the disclosure of public records of the
Mississippi Department of Human Services cannot and will not be protected by the existing party
to this action, as the interests of Petitioner and the newspaper are directly adverse. Moreover,
The Clarion-Ledger’s right of access under the Mississippi Public Records Act will be impaired
if it is not allowed to intervene in the case to oppose the relief sought by Petitioner and to pursue
production by MDHS of documents which have not been shown to be exempt from the Act.
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particularly the claims for which intervention is sought is attached hereto as Exhibit D, as
13. Undersigned counsel has conferred with counsel for the Petitioner and represents
to the Court that Petitioner does not object to the proposed intervention.
For the foregoing reasons, The Clarion-Ledger requests the Court to permit it to intervene
Respectfully submitted,
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, John P. Sneed, hereby certify that I electronically filed the foregoing with the Clerk of
Court using the CM/ECF system which will automatically send email notification to all counsel
of record.
s/John P. Sneed
JOHN P. SNEED
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