JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A University of Missouri professor who is running for attorney general as a Republican told school officials that his academic freedom would be violated if they release records and emails related to the school’s decision to grant him tenure.
Josh Hawley, an associate law professor at Mizzou, said his emails and records shouldn’t be subject to state Sunshine Law in response to a request by former state representative Kevin Elmer, a Nixa Republican. Hawley formally entered the race for AG in late July after spending months traveling the state to speak at Republican events, sparking rumors that the young lawyer would eventually challenge the presumptive nominee, Columbia state senator Kurt Schaefer.
On May 28, Elmer sent a request seeking emails, documents created on Hawley’s work computer, internal school correspondence about his tenure status, and correspondence related to the AG’s race. On June 16, as the university prepared a response to Elmer’s request, it sent a draft of the response to Hawley, who warned “the university may want to think very hard before turning over materials from individual faculty not related to university administration or governance.”
Unfortunately for Hawley, University lawyer Paul Maguffee disagreed, and said in an email that all of Hawley’s records would be subject to sunshine law.
Hawley argued the release of all his record posed a violation of his academic freedom, citing several court cases and stating that he believed Elmer’s request was an attempt to “intimidate, harass and threaten” tenure decisions at the school. Elmer has publicly stated that while he supports Schaefer’s bid for AG, he did not make the records request on the senator’s behalf.
Elmer says he has paid about $5,000 to the school to obtain the records but is still waiting for most of the documents he request. The former state representative and attorney also said that his request was not borne out of a fight with Hawley, but rather concerns about how the school chooses to grant tenure.
Hawley told some reporters that his legal opinion on the issue was requested, but that he would comply with whatever the university counsel decided.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
