Arizona court rejects lawsuit concerning access to climate researcher emails

Ars Technica : An Arizona court has rejected a lawsuit by the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, which sought to gain access to faculty emails at Arizona state universities. After examining sample emails, the court determined that the state’s university system had correctly responded to the institute’s open-records request. The institute had requested emails from a variety of university faculty members, including two climate researchers: Jonathan Overpeck and Malcolm Hughes. The university system’s Board of Regents rejected the request because the emails were private, contained student information, and discussed ongoing research. The institute also lost a similar case in Virginia, which included the emails of climate researcher Michael Mann. The case marks the second time a court has ruled that materials detailing ongoing research projects are not subject to open-records requests.