Horner v. Rector & Visitors of George Mason University

A Virginia state court found that George Mason University should have produced records, including emails, of a professor who served as director of the university’s Center For Climate Change Communication in response to a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The request was submitted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which sought communications that CEI said would show that the professor helped to organize a campaign to prosecute fossil fuel companies and lobbyists for deceiving the public about the risks of climate change. The court found that the university’s search for records was inadequate and was not persuaded by the university’s argument that the records sought were not records relating to “the transaction of public business.”