Clay Lee, Associate in the Health Care & Life Sciences and Litigation & Business Disputes practices, in the firm’s Nashville office, and the firm’s representation of Rep. David Byrd, was featured in the Nashville Post, in “David Byrd Wants to Strip John Doe Accuser of Anonymity,” by Stephen Elliott.
Following is an excerpt:
Rep. David Byrd’s lawyers are asking a federal court to unseal the name of the high school student who sued him and others alleging the violation of First Amendment rights when students were asked to wear Byrd campaign shirts on a field trip to the Capitol.
The plaintiff has been proceeding in the litigation under the name John Doe, but Byrd’s lawyers, citing the plaintiff’s recent 18th birthday, asked the court to force the accuser to use his name in the case. …
Byrd’s private attorney, Clay Lee of Nashville firm Epstein Becker & Green, asked the court to strip the student’s anonymity, but Byrd is also represented by lawyers from the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office.
“If Doe is successful in obtaining a financial award against these public officials, the ultimate payment will be shouldered by the Tennessee taxpayers who have a right to know who is knocking at the doors of the treasury,” the defendant argued in the filing. Byrd’s lawyer also argued that the plaintiff’s identity “has never really been much of a secret to anyone at Wayne County High School,” lessening the argument for secrecy.
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