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VA Supreme Court: Michael Mann Needn't Turn Over All His Email
RoccamOccam sends news that the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that Michael Mann, a climate scientist notable for his work on the "hockey stick" graph, does not have to turn over the entirety of his papers and emails under Freedom of Information laws. Roughly 1,000 documents were turned over in response to the request, but another 12,000 remain, which lawyers for the University of Virginia say are "of a proprietary nature," and thus entitled to an exemption. The VA Supreme Court ruled (PDF), "the higher education research exemption's desired effect is to avoid competitive harm not limited to financial matters," and said the application of "proprietary" was correct in this case. Mann said he hopes the ruling "can serve as a precedent in other states confronting this same assault on public universities and their faculty."
If he works at a state university, he is a public employee. Public employees working for hire on public research paid for by the public should have no "proprietary" exemption to FOIA for papers related to the public work for hire. Asking for their work under FOIA is not an "assault on public universities and their faculty"; it is accountability for public officials.
Another question is about the scientific integrity here. If the data is true and supportive of his assertions, he should WANT to publish it. There is no legitimate reason to want to hide scientific data.
Show the papers and the data, unless of course you have something to hide.
I could really care less about the whole thing, but to quibble, he did not release his birth certificate to the public.