SCOTUS: Constitution doesn't protect FOIA access rights of state nonresidents

There is an exception in the Virginia Statute for representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation in Virginia and radio and TV stations that broadcast there

 

You can ask for anything you want.

 

Could that extend (or does it include) websites as "circulation"?
In theory, if you can call up the website within a state's borders you could say you circulate there.

 

Duke is private, but the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech aren't.

 

The ACC privates are:

Duke
Wake
Miami
BC
Syracuse
Notre Dame

EDIT: Pitt is "state-related", whatever that means.

 

This is an excellent question. One of the stories we did recently in the trade magazine I edit is about businesses suddenly finding they have to comply with advertising regulations in other states as well as their own because their ads run on the Internet and can be seen by residents of other states with whom they can potentially do business. I'm no lawyer but it seems it wouldn't be much of a stretch from there to a newspaper in North Carolina saying it circulates in Virginia because its stories run on the web and can be (and probably are) read by Virginia residents.

 

The amicus brief filed by a group of media and journalism organizations talks about this. The language of the media exception limits it to "representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation in the Commonwealth, and representatives of radio and television stations broadcasting in or into the Commonwealth." The brief points out that a straightforward reading of the language excludes online media, although there are no cases addressing the issue. The petitioners were not journalists so the application of the media exception wasn't addressed by any of the courts.

The other states that limit FOIA access to residents have no media exception.