Prince William hosts important global warming case - The State of NoVa - The Washington Post

There are apparently about 12,000 e-mails being sought by the ATI, and U-Va. is resisting turning over most of them. On Tuesday in court, both sides exchanged harsh rhetoric, Mann’s request to become a party to the case was granted, and a judge said he would order a third party to review which e-mails should be released and which ones were exempt from Virginia’s FOIA laws.
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U-Va. said in court papers that it wants to protect the “confidential scholarly and scientific communications of University faculty.” Mann said outside the courtroom that scientists banter candidly, sometimes heatedly, over important issues. “You need to be able to bounce ideas off each other,” Mann said, “that aren’t always ready for prime time.” He noted that various scientific organizations have urged U-Va., and the courts, to resist ATI’s inquiries.

“The issue isn’t FOIA,” Mann said. “It’s a partisan witch hunt.”

Schnare disagreed. “The public has a right to see that these professors are following their own university’s rules,” he said. “This is about the balance between the public’s right to know under FOIA, and the university’s need to protect academic freedom.”

Schnare said he wants to dig into Mann’s research. “You want to know what are the assumptions? What are the records? We have ‘Climategate’ e-mails to show he can’t even find the data.” He said U-Va. had already spent more than $750,000 in legal costs to keep the e-mails secret.