Ten Organizations Submit Amicus Brief in American Oversight Lawsuit for Youngkin Tip Line Documents

Despite the tip line having been closed for nearly a year without any clear resulting actions, the office of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin continues to fight against the release of public information related to its controversial “inherently divisive concepts” tip line. 

The tip line, which was instituted in conjunction with Youngkin’s first executive order, was set up to receive complaints about the teaching of “divisive” concepts, including critical race theory in K-12 schools. In August 2022, American Oversight sued Youngkin’s office for related records. Now, the office has appealed a court order to release records related to the tip line and continues to argue that the records are “correspondence and working papers of the Governor’s office” and are therefore exempt from disclosure.

On Aug. 7, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and nine other media and transparency organizations — including the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, the National Freedom of Information Coalition, and the Society of Professional Journalists — submitted an amicus brief for the appellate court’s consideration, urging it to uphold the lower court’s ruling that records related to the tip line are subject to release. 

The amicus brief also argued that Youngkin’s office is not entitled to a presumption that it has complied with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and that it relied on an overbroad interpretation of the law’s “working papers” exemption to “place broad categories of records out of the reach of requestors, including journalists, to the ultimate detriment of the public.”

In July, American Oversight had argued in a brief filed in the appellate case that Youngkin’s office did not prove it had properly searched for the requested records and had improperly interpreted and applied the working papers exemption.

Previously, American Oversight obtained a supplemental response in our lawsuit from Youngkin’s office, which stated that the tip line had received 381,166 emails as of Sept. 27, 2022. Youngkin’s office produced one email containing a proposed automatic email response to tip line submissions and told American Oversight that it had no other records responsive to our request for emails sent in response to tip line submissions.

Youngkin’s office is expected to file its response in the appellate court later this month. Read more about American Oversight’s work in Virginia here.