Battle Creek Times

The University of Michigan says it doesn't understand why it's being sued by a Midland-based legal foundation over an allegedly botched Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald reportedly wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that the University administration was "baffled" by the complaint that Mackinac Center Legal Foundation announced the previous Monday it had filed in Michigan Court of Claims.

“In response to the Mackinac Center’s FOIA appeal, the university provided 224 pages of documents with very modest redactions – mostly of email addresses for security purposes – perhaps totaling five pages," The Michigan Daily quoted Fitzgerald in a news story published Tuesday, Dec. 8. "That is in addition to the 155 pages of documents provided in the university’s initial response. The university will vigorously defend the integrity of our FOIA process in the Court of Claims."

Fitzgerald also said that the University will pursue a resolution in court, The Michigan Daily reported.

The Mackinac Center describes itself as "a public interest law firm that advances individual freedom and the rule of law in Michigan."

In its complaint, the Mackinac Center claims the University ran afoul of provisions Michigan's FOIA laws when it allegedly failed to provide an adequate number of documents about the process and reasons behind the state's lockdown in March near the beginning of the still ongoing pandemic.

Among other documents, the Mackinac Center claims it asked for, and didn't get, correspondence behind Michigan Medicine’s management of pandemic and reopening guidelines.

The Mackinac Center wants adequate documentation about how the University came to support the state-mandated lockdowns in response to its FOIA requests, Steve Delie, the center's director of labor policy and policy lead on transparency and open government, said in a news release that announced the complaint.

"There has understandably been a lot of speculation surrounding the inconsistencies in Gov. Whitmer’s COVID-19 response plans," Delie said in the news release. "The public deserves to know what data was used as the basis for these decisions that impacted their lives and livelihoods."