The Mackinac Center for Public Policy says it plans to sue Michigan State University for allegedly violating the Freedom of Information Act.
The think tank says MSU improperly redacted and blacked out key documents related to a potential and controversial Eagle Township megasite.
The parcel of land in the township was donated to the university. It’s unclear whether MSU is allowed to sell the land for the site because the donation agreement may possibly prohibit it from being sold for non-agricultural use.
That’s what the Mackinac Center wanted to know.
The center filed a public records request in February. The think tanks says the documents it received related to the agreement in response to that request were almost entirely redacted.
It says the university claimed an exemption that private information in documents related to security can be withheld.
“The Eagle Township megasite has been the source of major media attention, but details on the project are sorely lacking. Michigan’s citizens deserve to know the details of how the underlying land came to be in MSU possession, and MSU needs to be held accountable for relying on improper redactions to withhold key information," Steve Delie, the center's director of transparency and open government, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the university declined to comment citing the pending litigation.
