A Shabby Crusade in Wisconsin

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/opinion/28mon3.html?_r=2

The latest technique used by conservatives to silence liberal academics is to demand copies of e-mails and other documents. Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli of Virginia tried it last year with a climate-change scientist, and now the Wisconsin Republican Party is doing it to a distinguished historian who dared to criticize the state’s new union-busting law. These demands not only abuse academic freedom, but make the instigators look like petty and medieval inquisitors.

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It's the timing of the request that has me wondering. He has never been a subject of any FOIA before he published his piece on ALEC.

"In particular, he pointed to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group backed by business interests that circulates draft legislation in every state capital, much of it similar to the Wisconsin law, and all of it unmatched by the left. Two days later, the state Republican Party filed a freedom-of-information request with the university, demanding all of his e-mails containing the words “Republican,” “Scott Walker,” “union,” “rally,” and other such incendiary terms. (The Op-Ed article appeared five days after that.)"


Another article:
FOIA “request” in Wisconsin could be violation of whistleblower protection law

"Wisconsinite Jean Detjen sent me a note correcting my misinformation: Wisconsin does indeed have a whistleblower protection act. The law protects Wisconsin state employees, against retaliation for disclosing information about wrongdoing."

http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/foia-request-in-wisconsin-could-be-violation-of-whistleblower-protection-law/