The San Antonio Express-News is going to bat in court against a Bexar County Commissioner who argues his personal-account emails about public business should not be subject to open records laws (Disclosure: I worked at the EN from 2006 to 2008). In 2010, the paper requested records under the Texas Public Information Act from Commissioner Tommy Adkisson about a debate over toll roads. Adkisson released correspondence from his county email address, but “refused to make available similar documents held in his two personal accounts,” reports the Express-News.

Now here’s what’s happening:

Adkisson has sued Abbott over his opinion that under the Texas Public Information Act, the commissioner must release emails from his personal accounts in which he conducted official business. Adkisson disagrees and will argue his case this week in Travis County district court. …

The attorney general has said the Public Information Act cannot be circumvented “by conducting official public business in a private medium,” but the issue appears to be largely uncharted territory for Texas courts. …

[Adkisson] is challenging the applicability of the state’s open records law and maintains that, even as a public official, he has a right to privacy. In court documents, Adkisson asserts that “the Commissioner’s privately held email is not ‘public information.’” …

In his motion for summary judgment, Adkisson argues that the state’s open records law does not apply to the privately held email of government officials; that Bexar County does not have access to his privately held email; and that since he’s an official, not a “governmental body,” the law does not apply. …

“I think that my AOL account is confidential and I think it’s protected by the open records act,” Adkisson said in an interview. “If you compare what the attorney general says — which is his own revision of the statue, which is impermissible — he says information is within the scope of the act if it relates to the official business of a governmental body and is maintained by a public official or employee of the governmental body. That’s a complete and utter misinterpretation of the law, and I can’t imagine how that’s not intentional. But I’d like to afford him the benefit of simply being mistaken.”

The Express-News has intervened in the suit, arguing Adkisson must release the emails.

I’ve made open records requests and received emails from officials’ personal email accounts. I’ve read news articles about other journalists’ battles, resulting in them winning access to records pertaining to public business from officials’ personal email accounts. Nevertheless, this story indicates there are few actual court opinions on the subject. I agree with the Attorney General’s conclusion that “the Public Information Act cannot be circumvented ‘by conducting official public business in a private medium.’”