SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF VIRGINIA

For more than a year, the Union of Concerned Scientists has been involved in efforts to prevent Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli from subpoenaing the private correspondence of dozens of climate change researchers under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. But our work quickly expanded to encompass harassment of scientists through the Virginia Freedom of information Act (VFOIA).

In January 2011, the American Tradition Institute submitted a request under the VFOIA seeking the same broad range of records as the subpoenas: emails, handwritten notes, and any other communication associated with one scientist’s tenure at the University of Virginia. Two months later, similar requests for professors’ emails were received by universities in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Many universities are unprepared to respond appropriately to these sorts of inquiries. While open records laws are critically important, public institutions must also defend the privacy of scientists and their freedom to pursue potentially contentious lines of research. I will discuss the case studies outlined above and suggest ways that states and universities can balance the interest in public disclosure against the public interest in academic freedom.