We asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for his and his staff’s emails with Elon Musk and Musk’s companies.
The governor’s office won’t turn them over, saying some contain “intimate and embarrassing” information that is “not of legitimate concern to the public.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-governor-greg-abbott-elon-musk-emails-foia?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
i was not aware of the "intimate and embarrassing" exception to FOIA
@peterhoneyman @ProPublica Remember that this is the Texas state law, not the Federal one. Not that claim is necessarily legit, of course, but it is a different statute than the one most of us are familiar with.
@SteveBellovin @peterhoneyman @ProPublica Ah, so this would not fall under FOIA then I see. Maybe the "embarassing" things he's talking about involves Teaxas getting money from Musk for something legit that the Governor wouldn't want people to know they needed help with?
@Kyaneos @peterhoneyman @ProPublica Could be. I’ve filed federal FOIA requests but know nothing of state equivalents, save that some of them only let residents file requests.
it's part of the "for thee but not for me" part of legal enforcement. that's quite big in TX, particularly with the TX GOP.
@paul_ipv6 @peterhoneyman @ProPublica
Yep.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind,
alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
There is nothing more or else to it,
and there never has been."
~Frank Wilhoit, composer
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288