[A] lawsuit in South Carolina could change who can access public information, and it's already affecting a high-profile case centered around the Godfather of Soul. The biggest thing in question here is can you, a private citizen, be stripped of your FOIA rights if you're being sued by a public body?
That would change the game. It would mean a lot of time and money that people probably don't have.
Right now that question is playing out in a lawsuit over one of James Brown's former trustees, Adele Pope. She requested some public documents, but once the Attorney General sued her, the court ruled she could only get those documents through discovery, a lengthy process of a lawsuit.