Government Accountability & Oversight v. Regents of the University of Michigan

The Michigan Court of Claims ruled that the Regents of the University of Michigan properly denied Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for a law professor’s communications with certain entities that the professor represented on a pro bono basis while employed by the University as a professor. The entities included organizations working on climate Superfund legislation. The requests also sought certain correspondence related to a memorandum prepared by the professor in March 2023 that the requestor also referred to as “American Petroleum Institute Opposition to a Climate Superfund Act.” The court concluded that the professor was not a “public body” subject to FOIA in her individual capacity. The court further concluded that the requested communications were not “public records” subject to FOIA because the record did not support the requestor’s position that the requested documents “were used in the performance of an official function.” The court wrote that the “fatal flaw” in the requestor’s argument was that it failed to connect the communications to the professor’s “required job duties or other authorized acts or operations of the University.” The court said any “indirect benefit” to the University from the professor’s pro bono work was not an official function and found no evidence that the pro bono work was ever used as part of an official University function.