If they’re out to give freedom-of-information requests a bad name, then the Associated Press and New York Times are on the right track with their fishing expedition for work e-mails of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s wife.

The Web site NTK Network broke news Thursday that both outfits are requesting records from Ashley Kavanaugh’s time as town manager for the Village of Chevy Chase, Md. It’s a blatant Hail Mary dig for something that might embarrass the nominee: What dirt can they possibly expect from an official running a township with a population of 2,100?

The Post files FOIL requests, but only when we have strong reason to believe they’ll strike gold. And our reporters take care to make the request as narrow as practical, in order to get the info we want as soon as possible rather than demand that government workers waste time producing irrelevant records.

The AP, by contrast, simply used the Maryland Public Information Act to request all of Ashley’s e-mails. The Times, somewhat to its credit, specified communiques with phrases such as “Judge,” “Brett,” “Abortion,” “Gay,” “Trump,” “Clinton” and so on.

Oh, as well as “Federalist,” “Leonard Leo” and “fed-soc.org” — indicating a faint hope that the paper can gin up some click-bait suggesting Mrs. Kavanaugh is using her awesome town-manager powers to somehow conspire with Leo and the Federalist Society, a debating and networking society for right-leaning lawyers and students.

Pathetic.