Brendan Fischer, a lawyer who represented the Center for Media and Democracy, said his group would not appeal to seek those records.

April Barker, the lawyer for the other plaintiffs, said it’s too early to say whether they planned to appeal.

UW authority, budget issue

The records released Friday focused on Walker’s unsuccessful proposal to revamp the governance structure of the UW System as part of the 2015-17 budget.

They show state employees discussing various changes to the System and its budget.

Smith called them “professional communications” and rejected the administration’s argument that releasing them would create a chilling effect on other government employees.

Fischer said if Smith had sided with Walker to withhold all of the records, it would have “had the potential to undermine the open records law.”

“Most importantly, Judge Smith rejected Gov. Walker’s office’s efforts to blow a new loophole in the open records law,” said Fischer. “I think it’s certainly a victory for transparency and the public’s right to know and we look forward to receiving the documents.”