Attorney General Moody Files Lawsuit Against ACC for Withholding ESPN-Related Agreements from Review

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody today filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference for wrongfully withholding public records from review. Under secret media rights contracts located somewhere in its North Carolina headquarters, the ACC has made claims that could cost Florida State University more than half a billion dollars. Attorney General Moody first took action in January, requesting the ACC to produce the contracts at the center of FSU’s fight to leave the ACC, but the ACC unlawfully refused. Now, Attorney General Moody is taking legal action to require disclosure of these public records.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “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.”

In a legal action filed today in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, Attorney General 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. 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.

Attorney General Moody is urging the court to find that the defendants improperly withheld the media rights contracts and direct the ACC to immediately provide the requested records.

To read the full lawsuit, click here.

Attorney General Moody first sent a public records request to the ACC in January. To learn more, click here.

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