![]() ![]() See more about the AP’s democracy initiative here. The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. The AP also sought comment from the universities that supplied the records, the donors mentioned in the story and the Supreme Court itself, which provided a statement responding to the findings. The initial fee cited by the University of Georgia for processing two requests was $18,800.50, though it was later reduced after the AP narrowed its request. The AP did pay some schools for documents, including $140 to Michigan State University $159.24 to the University of Minnesota and roughly $150 to the University of Mississippi.īut some schools responded to records requests with fee demands that the AP deemed unreasonable. Other schools, including the University of Arizona, have said their search for records remained ongoing after more than six months. The AP went to the Illinois state attorney general to get a binding opinion directing the Chicago Public Library to produce documents related to a visit by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A follow-up request was filed with the University of Mississippi for the cost of a flight that carried Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Antonin Scalia and Scalia’s son and grandson in 2014. In the case of the University of Texas at Tyler, for instance, the AP filed a follow-up request to obtain a guest list for a dinner with Thomas. In some instances, AP filed multiple requests with the same institution, either because the school asked that the initial request be substantially narrowed or because an initial response suggested that even more details might be available. A reporting trip was also taken there so that a journalist could observe firsthand the site of a dinner that the college organized for Justice Clarence Thomas. McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, produced 104 pages of records in March and then, following a $110 payment, shipped by mail a box of blue folders containing hundreds more pages. Some schools turned over thousands of pages of records, including George Mason University and the University of Kentucky. Some schools, including the University of Rhode Island, Ohio State University, Stony Brook University and the University of California, Davis, provided records free of charge. The responses among public institutions varied widely. The AP also compiled lists of guests, including donors and politicians, who were invited to private receptions with justices and vetted them wherever possible against information in federal court records, Federal Election Commission filings, online photo albums of events and other publicly available data. ![]() The AP cataloged the travel and perks afforded to the justices. ![]()
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