Today, on behalf of Gawker Entertainment and its reporter, John Cook, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey filed a lawsuit in Mercer County Superior Court against Governor Chris Christie. The suit challenges the governor’s refusal — based on claims of executive privilege — to release correspondence between himself and Fox News President Roger Ailes.

According to a press release from the ACLU, Cook filed a request for correspondence between Christie and Ailes under the state Open Public Records Act (OPRA) on May 25, 2011. Cook sought any correspondence, phone records and calendar entries from Christie’s office in order to shed light on conversations reported in New York magazine in which Ailes, a Republican political adviser turned Fox media mogul, urged Governor Christie to run for president. The Governor’s office responded to the OPRA request on June 14, 2011, refusing to confirm whether the records existed, but said that if they did, they would be exempt from OPRA under executive privilege.

The lawsuit argues that the state’s blanket assertion of executive privilege, without explanation or description of the documents, was insufficient to sustain the claim. They say that in order for executive privilege to be properly invoked, the governor must identify the responsive records (without disclosing compromising details) and explain why the exemption applies. Otherwise, they claim, records should be subject to a judge’s in camera review.

“New Jersey needs a system in place to separate executive privilege from carte blanche,” said Frank Corrado of Barry, Corrado, Grassi & Gibson, who is representing Cook for the ACLU-NJ and is the president of the organization’s board. “Executive privilege exists to help a governor carry out constitutional obligations, not to diminish the constitutional right to a free press.”

Executive privilege protects Christie from disclosing records that contain advice to him on matters related to his functions as Governor of New Jersey. However, the ACLU says that while the system is intended to protect “the sensitive decisional and consultative” responsibilities of the governor to fulfill his constitutional obligations, it does not apply to records that do not pertain to his constitutional obligations as the chief executive. The lawsuit seeks to ensure that Governor Christie hasn’t improperly invoked the privilege.

“The public has a right to know whether the head of America’s most-watched cable news channel is advising a sitting governor on State matters,” said Cook. “If the emails on the state system between the Governor and Ailes don’t relate to Christie’s functions as Governor, then they can’t be hidden from the public.”

You can read more on Gawker Entertainment v. Jeffrey S. Chiesa on the ACLU web site.