Freedom of Speech in a GOP Led Wisconsin

A professor at the University of Wisconsin wrote an op-ed in the NYT critical of the GOP's misuse of power. The GOP response was to demand access to his university email records. What they hope to find is anything that can be used to discredit him as a critic. This would also have a chilling effect in academia. Anyone critical of government might fear that the government would poke into their private email records. Is this the kind of America that the GOP represents?