On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled (PDF) that states can limit their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to only citizens of that state.

The unanimous decision is a significant setback to journalists and researchers who use the tool to gather information from public agencies. Ars and dozens of media organizations—including the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The New Yorker, The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, etc.—filed an amicus brief (PDF) in favor of the two men who challenged the restriction.

The case’s first petitioner is a man who used to live in Virginia, Mark J. McBurney, whose ex-wife is a Virginia citizen. After the woman did not fulfill her child support obligations, McBurney asked a state public agency to file a petition for child support on his behalf—the Division of Child Support Enforcement took nine months to comply. In order to ascertain the delay, McBurney filed a FOIA request, seeking “all e-mails, notes, files, memos, reports, letters, policies, [and] opinions” regarding his family’s case. His request was denied on the grounds that he was no longer a citizen of the state. The case’s second petitioner, Roger Hulbert, lives in California. He was hired by a land and title company to obtain real estate tax records in Virginia. He filed a FOIA request and was denied on similar grounds.

In the unanimous opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote:

The Virginia FOIA’s citizen/noncitizen distinction has a non-protectionist aim. Virginia’s FOIA exists to provide a mechanism for Virginia citizens to obtain an accounting from their public officials; noncitizens have no comparable need. Moreover, the distinction between citizens and noncitizens recognizes that citizens alone foot the bill for the fixed costs underlying recordkeeping in the Commonwealth. Any effect the Act has of preventing citizens of other States from making a profit by trading on information contained in state records is incidental.

This ruling will almost certainly make it more difficult for journalists covering the entire country to file requests under state-level FOIAs, or as they are sometimes known, Requests for Information (RFI). For example, if Ohio had enacted such a restriction last year, it may have been more difficult for Ars to obtain license plate reader-related documents from the Ohio State Police, as we do not have any staffers in the Buckeye State.

Several other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Tennessee, impose similar geographic restrictions.