Originally Posted by dippin

In this case, yes (university of wisconsin emails). Of course, whether the Republican party will be able to obtain these emails is a legal matter and by itself constitute no wrong doing. On the balance will be whether public records laws trump FERPA, academic freedom and other laws (since his email likely contains communications with students, communications about hiring decisions and so on). But that is beside the point (and the professor himself has already stated that he has long used a private email account in order to abide by the University of Wisconsin's own policies). That is, the issue is less whether the Republican party CAN do this, but more that it is willing to do so.

The fact that the Republican party's legal team has decided to do this over a blog post is a clear indication that it will try any possible legal maneuvers to intimidate any potential opposition.