The best-selling author of Missoula is seeking access to files indicating why the state overturned a campus disciplinary board's findings in a high-profile sexual assault case involving a University of Montana athlete. But the state argues that granting Jon Krakauer's request will put the state in violation of federal privacy laws and place $263 million in federal funding at risk.
A brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court reflects exasperation with colleges' unwillingness to honor legal researchers' requests for public records. As one law professor tells The Chronicle of Higher Education, "We find in our surveys substantially more stonewalling over the past two years" when state universities are asked to produce documents about their admissions standards.
Virginia public records law exempts the disclosure of university presidents' working notes or correspondence, which has raised questions in light of the Rolling Stones article's aftermath. Some public access advocates are trying to remove those exemptions from the law.
Students and groups across the country are fighting for access to records from universities' nonprofit foundations.
A recent decision said that a state agency does not have to release documents with sensitive information, even if the exempted information is redacted.
The university is requesting attorney fees after winning a lawsuit filed by its student news site that accused the school of redacting public records and shutting reporters out of student disciplinary hearings.
A police department in Reserve, Pa., tried to stop a public-records requester from making his own duplicates of government expense-account documents. But the state open-records commission, adding Pennsylvania to a growing list of states, says there's a legal right to take pictures of government documents.
Indiana's attorney general has thrown the state's influential weight behind a lawsuit seeking access to police records at Notre Dame, whose attorneys claim the private institution is exempt from the state public-records act. Sports network ESPN is trying to make Indiana the third state this year to declare private-college police reports open for public inspection.
A recent court ruling puts Pennsylvania in the majority camp of states that have judicially recognized a right of public access to videos shot by automated cameras on police-car dashboards. Dash-cam videos have at times helped exposed police wrongdoing, though opponents argue that the videos can needlessly embarrass those being stopped by police.
Wyoming legislators are seeking an exemption for personal student emails under the state's public records law.