as Attorney General had no legal authority to demand the records from the university. Mann expressed pleasure at the outcome, but stated that "It's sad that so much money and resources had to be wasted on Cuccinelli's witch hunt against me and the University of Virginia, when it could have been invested, for example, in measures to protect Virginia's coastline from the damaging effects of sea-level rise it is already seeing." The Union of Concerned Scientists applauded the reconfirmation that the demands lacked legal standing, and said that "Academic institutions have the responsibility to protect their faculty's ability to discover new things about our world without fearing harassment. Nobody should expect the rough drafts of their work to be subject to the same level of scrutiny as their published research." The Attorney General's office put out a statement that "From the beginning, we have said that we were simply trying to review documents that are unquestionably state property to determine whether or not fraud had been committed. Today, the court effectively held that state agencies do not have to provide state-owned property to state investigators looking into potential fraud involving government funds." External links University of Virginia Petition To Set Aside Civil Investigative Demands Issued to the University of Virginia, May 27, 2010 Brief in Support of Petition to Set Aside Civil Investigative Demands Issued to the University of Virginia, June 29, 2010 Exhibits to Brief in Support of Petition to Set Aside Civil Investigative Demands, June 29, 2010 Reply Brief in Support of Petition to Set Aside Civil Investigative Demands Issued to the University of Virginia, July 20, 2010 Attorney General of Virginia Answer to University of Virginia Petition, June 11, 2010 Brief in Opposition to Petition, July 13, 2010 Court Decisions Order setting aside the CID 30 August 2010 Supreme Court of Virginia opinion affirming the judgment of the circuit court and setting aside the CIDs with prejudice; March 2, 2012 References This article contains material copied from Ken Cuccinelli. Politics of climate change Environmental controversies University of Virginia