From the Reporter-Herald (Loveland):  When politicians speak of government being transparent, voters should keep an important fact in mind: Nowhere in the Founding Fathers’ vision of the United States is there any mention of citizens being able to inspect documents or request more information from the officials paid by taxpayer dollars.

This lack of public access has been reinforced several times by the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently in the 2013 case, McBurney v. Young.

In that case, citizens living outside the state of Virginia sued the state after being denied records requests based on their residency in other states.

“There is no contention that the Nation’s unity foundered in their absence, or that it is suffering now because of the citizens-only FOIA provisions that several States have enacted,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito in a unanimous decision.

Against this backdrop, trustees from Colorado State University have been told of an effort to change their policies to prohibit residents from outside Colorado from being able to file Colorado Open Records Act requests from the university.

The university does have an argument that the taxpayers of Colorado are paying for the collection and storage of the university’s records, and therefore nonresidents don’t have a stake in the matter. Also, in the Supreme Court case the justices noted there is no interstate commerce ramifications that might spur a constitutional violation.

However, the university should consider an important constituency that should not be allowed to become powerless: out-of-state students and their parents. Because of funding shortfalls from the Colorado General Assembly, those out-of-state students and their parents are paying many thousands of dollars each year to attend the school. They should not be denied record requests beyond those to which they are entitled as students.

Visit the Reporter-Herald for more.