From the News & Observer (11/27/2013): The Civitas Insitute requested six weeks worth of e-mails and phone records from University of North Carolina School of Law Professor Gene Nichol after Nichol published an op-ed column critical of Gov. Pat McCrory. Thirty faculty members from the law school then signed a letter published in the Chapel Hill News complaining that "surveilling a professor’s communications is a really troubling approach to protecting liberty."
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that the conservative Civitas Institute has filed a records request for six weeks worth of University of North Carolina School of Law Professor Gene Nichol’s email and phone records. The records request followed an op-ed column that Nichol wrote for the Oct. 14 edition of the newspaper. On Tuesday, 30 members of the UNC School of Law faculty published a letter to the editor in the Chapel Hill News. The professors complained that “surveilling a professor’s communications is a really troubling approach to protecting liberty,” in reference to Civitas state mission. One professor referred to the request as a kind of “intimidation.” Civitas declined to tell the News & Observer why it was seeking the records.