The student-run newspaper is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to get access to NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy photographs. Tom Julin, an attorney for the student-run newspaper at the University of Florida, has argued to the high court that the decision barring the newspaper access violates the First Amendment. He made a second point in the appeal, which was mailed Monday, that the law restricting access to autopsy photos is unconstitutional. Autopsy photographs had been public records for decades when Earnhardt died at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2001. After his family obtained a court order sealing photos from his autopsy, the Orlando Sentinel sued for access to the pictures. The newspaper said it did not want to publish the photos but to examine them as part of its ongoing investigation into racing safety. The newspaper reached an agreement with the Earnhardts allowing an independent medical expert to view the photos and write a report on how the driver died. Only the expert saw the pictures, and none were published.( Orlando Sentinel/AP )(9-30-2003)
