Asked for "all written communications" of College of Journalism employees, text and Signal/WhatsApp messages included, UF's records custodian had IT search the email of two people, attachments out: "The person did not ask for attachments."
Art. I, s. 24(a) and s. 119.07(1)(a) required UF to search the scope Husband wrote: every channel he listed, and the records of all employees within the UF College of Journalism and Communications, the group his request named. UF's own brief names the duty: "making reasonable efforts to determine from other officers or employees within the agency whether such a record exists." A custodian that narrows the search to two mailboxes tells the requester which ones, in writing, before the search runs.
- March 26, 2026: the request covered "employees within the UF College of Journalism and Communications, specifically including but not limited to" the Brechner project, Cuillier and Bambauer, and asked for "all written communications, including but not limited to emails, text messages, Signal/WhatsApp messages, internal memoranda, notes," personal devices included. UF's acknowledgment noted: "Email searches will not include attachments unless specifically requested." FNEW-U1
- March 30, 2026, 11:29 AM to 12:48 PM: the custodian asked IT to "handle the email search for this request," named two mailboxes, David Cuillier and Jane Bambauer, and added: "The person did not ask for attachments." IT's return: "This search concluded with 103 message(s), which resulted in 330 page(s). No attachments were included." FNEW-U1Read them: The custodian's instruction and IT's return (production pp. 2, 23) (link pending redacted copy)
- May 8 to July 7, 2026: Husband asked for a certification "identifying the custodians and locations searched, including personal devices and private email accounts used for University business." UF's answer, after he sued: "Nowhere does Chapter 119 require that a state agency certify to a requestor that it has made a diligent search for records." The custodian swore he also sent the terms to the two professors, who "sent me records that consisted of email correspondence with Petitioner." FNEW-U1, N-120Which College mailboxes, phones and message accounts did UF search beyond two people's email, and where are the attachments to the 103 messages it pulled?
John Hines, Director of Public Records and records custodian (wrote the instruction; swore to the search). Daniel Quiros, UF Information Technology (ran the two-mailbox search). One request, one instruction, one search. Every duty here arises from UF's own March 30, 2026 search design on this request alone; no other card is needed to establish it.
Art. I, s. 24(a), Fla. Const. makes access to public records a constitutional right, presumes records open, and puts the burden of justifying any withholding on the custodian. Section 119.011(12), Fla. Stat., reaches official-business records in any physical form or means of transmission, texts and attachments included, and s. 119.07(1)(a) requires the custodian to permit inspection of every non-exempt public record the request describes.
The details are where it lives: full record, receipts, related cards
UF's processing file, produced later under a second records request, shows how the search for Husband's first request was built. On March 30, 2026 at 11:29 AM the records custodian wrote to UF Information Technology: 'Can you please handle the email search for this request? The person did not ask for attachments.' The search covered two mailboxes only, Cuillier and Bambauer, and email only: no text messages, no chat, no other written channel. The time frame was set at December 1, 2024 to March 26, 2026, the request date, while the request ran to 'the date this request is fulfilled.' The IT return came back the same afternoon: 'This search concluded with 103 message(s), which resulted in 330 page(s). No attachments were included.' The request itself, quoted in the custodian's own instruction, had asked for all written communications, including emails, text messages, Signal/WhatsApp messages, memoranda and notes, on personal devices too. UF's position is on the face of its own acknowledgment, which carried a standing note: 'Email searches will not include attachments unless specifically requested.' Whether that request 'specifically requested' attachments is the point the note and the instruction decided against the requester without saying so. A hit-distribution chart in the same file shows that 98.26% of the messages the whole 21-term search returned contained the bare word 'Hanson'; the other twenty terms added almost nothing. That is the 103-message universe every later UF card inherits: the stalled search and the closure at 53 pages (N-096, N-097), the surname withholding (N-100), and the extraction built out of the same set three days after completeness was declared (N-099). [PARTIAL]
The Constitution presumes the records open and puts the burden of justifying any narrowing on the agency. The scope of a search is set by the request's terms. The narrowing here happened in writing, inside UF's own processing file, before the search ran: attachments out, every channel but email out, two mailboxes in, and a date window closing on the request date. What the excluded scope held was never searched, so nobody can say what it contained. UF's later completeness statements (N-096, N-120) describe what this scope returned, not what existed.
before UF's search ever ran, its records office told the IT staff that the requester had not asked for attachments, and scoped the search to two mailboxes and to email alone; the request had asked for written communications
UF's W018964 production, produced July 17, 2026, emails_1.pdf: pp. 2 and 38 (custodian instruction, 3/30/2026 11:29:17 AM, with the request language quoted beneath it), pp. 23-24 and 36-37 (UFIT return, 3/30/2026 12:48:13 PM), p. 222 (hit distribution). Petition appendix App. 8 (UF's 3/26/2026 acknowledgment, carrying the request text and the note 'Email searches will not include attachments unless specifically requested'), Filing 250752293, PDF p. 9. UF response numbers digest, 7/31/26. Checked against the page image 9/26/2026: emails_1 pp. 2, 23 and 38, App. 8; earlier 8/19/2026 ledger for the remaining pages.
Full card on the map · UF/Brechner Freedom of Information Project page