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 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 that Nichol wrote for the Oct. 14 edition of the newspaper. On Tuesday, 30 members of the UNC School of Law faculty published a 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.