The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is the target of a lawsuit brought by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody Thursday for improperly preventing public records from being reviewed.
According to Moody, the ACC has made allegations that might cost Florida State University more than half a billion dollars, all under covert media rights contracts stashed away somewhere in its North Carolina offices.
In January, Attorney General Moody initiated legal action against the ACC, claiming that the organization had improperly failed to provide the contracts that were at the core of FSU’s effort to withdraw from the ACC.
Read: Texas And Florida Rated Best Places For Business, While California And New York Come In Last
Moody is now suing to force the release of these public documents.
“The ACC is asking a state entity—Florida State University—to potentially pay and lose more than a half a billion dollars but is refusing to produce the documents related to that outrageous price tag. We sent a public records request to the ACC in January, but they failed to fully comply. We are taking legal action against the ACC for wrongfully withholding these important public records,” said Moody.
In a legal action filed Thursday in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, Moody argued that the media rights contracts are public records because they were made or received in connection with the official business of a public state university or persons acting on their behalf.
The lawsuit argues that the documents are public records, even if prepared and maintained by a private organization, if they were ‘received’ by agents of a public agency and used in connection with public business.
Read: Florida AG Ashley Moody Takes Action Against Biden’s ‘Green New Deal’ EV Mandate
Additionally, matters of public concern are not transformed into private matters merely because the documents reside with a private organization.
If a private entity is acting on behalf of the state or local government and created a document that reflects the business of the governmental entity, the document is a public record.
Moody urges the court to find that the defendants improperly withheld the media rights contracts and direct the ACC to provide the requested records immediately.
Help support the Tampa Free Press by making any small donation by clicking here.
Android Users, Click To Download The Tampa Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.