WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the information industry and to open-government advocates on April 29, unanimously upholding a Virginia law that restricts the right of access to public documents to in-state residents.

Ruling in McBurney v. Young, 12-17, the court said the law, similar to insular statutes in seven other states, did not violate either the privileges and immunities clause or the commerce clause of the Constitution.