Shielding Journalism Professors from the Sunshine

Abstract

In September 2022, then U.S. Senate candidate and Missouri state attorney general Eric Schmitt filed a state public records request for emails of a University of Missouri journalism professor related to his work advising the student newspaper. Although this incident was novel, it offers a potential playbook for public figures to weaponize state public records laws against student news organizations and the faculty who advise them. This paper argues for an exemption to state public records laws covering the journalistic communication of faculty advisers to student journalists at state universities. It considers several sources of law that could inform such an exemption before offering a potential model language for an exemption.