Comments on: Critics hit U.Va. Prof. Douglas Laycock with FOIA

By: Stephen Carter on the Laycock affair - Overlawyered

Stephen Carter on the Laycock affair - Overlawyered — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 00:00:03 +0000

[…] Law’s Stephen Carter lacks patience for the start-a-conversation-by-FOIAing-someone’s-emails approach to academic […]

By: OBQuiet

OBQuiet — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 23:38:07 +0000

Scott Rose,

IN the same vein, would you be willing to make public all of your emails, notes and records of communication with any groups or individuals associated with any political or social advocacy?

If you have nothing to hide, we don’t need any law to convince you to cooperate, do we? Can we assume that if we don’t receive this in a timely manner, you are part of some conspiracy?

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 23:14:55 +0000

Generally the right to access public records does not require you to disclose your identity or purpose. The basic concept is that those records are open to inspection by members of the public at large. If the records do not exist, that information is provided to the requestor. Requests cannot require the public agency to create records, only to permit the inspection of records that exist.

By: Melvin H.

Melvin H. — Sat, 31 May 2014 05:52:55 +0000

Mr. Olson, I wonder–does the recipient of an FOIA request (a person, not necessarily a government department of a public college) have a chance to find out who is asking for those records, including who is backing those person(s) asking? And, what if some of those records being FOIA’d, such as personal emails from years in the past, no longer exist–what happens then?

By: Raybury

Raybury — Fri, 30 May 2014 21:04:17 +0000

@Scott Rose: I assume you take the same position with regard to Michael Mann’s UVA emails?

By: If you want to understand the logic of an inquisition... - Overlawyered

If you want to understand the logic of an inquisition... - Overlawyered — Fri, 30 May 2014 14:30:03 +0000

[…] this comment on our thread about activists’ FOIA-ing of University of Virginia professor Douglas […]

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 May 2014 14:08:20 +0000

If you want to understand the logic of an inquisition, everyone, study Scott Rose’s comment just above.

By: Scott Rose

Scott Rose — Fri, 30 May 2014 13:40:13 +0000

That Laycock and/or the university would refuse to show the requestors the material they are requesting suggests that Laycock has something to hide, and that what he is hiding shows that he has been behaving unethically.

By: FRC Blog » FREEDOM TO PROGRESSION vs. Freedom of Religion

FRC Blog » FREEDOM TO PROGRESSION vs. Freedom of Religion — Thu, 29 May 2014 21:21:45 +0000

[…] Walter Olson chimes in: […]

By: following up

following up — Wed, 28 May 2014 17:57:41 +0000

Re attorney-client communication: has Laycock never represented these groups before appellate courts, at least being on the brief?