Description: Action to compel production of professor's records that plaintiff alleged would show professor helped organize a campaign against fossil fuel companies.
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Horner v. Rector & Visitors of George Mason University
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/22/2016 Order Download Order issued. Virginia Court Ordered George Mason University to Produce Climate Communication Professor’s Emails. 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.”