Three new FPF FOIA suits target threats to transparency, press freedom
The Freedom of Information Act gives the public a right to access government records.
The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to shed light on government activity by giving journalists and the public access to government records. But the law is in shambles. From endless delays in response time and unjustified refusals to ridiculously overbroad redactions, FOIA is plagued with problems.
We must fight back against the government’s refusal to comply with FOIA and urge Congress to reform the law and end backlogs of requests, reduce the number of exemptions, and overturn damaging court decisions.
Featured Items
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This Week in Transparency: Runaway Classification and Bill Nye the Science Guy
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Runaway classification: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) introduced a bill to reign in classification, the Washington Post reports: "The …
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Chief Keith and the Revolving Door
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Keith Alexander's financial disclosure is vital to national security interests or something Over at The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf has an excellent piece on Jason …
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Lethal Injection Secrecy, Private Prison Project, and More
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Lethal Injection Secrecy: Over at Pacific Standard, the always-readable Ted Scheinman discusses the veil of secrecy surrounding the drug cocktails being used in lethal injections. As …
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Cass Sunstein and the Status Quo
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Cass Sunstein: Three cheers for the status quo Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein has an op-ed in Bloomberg View arguing against the FOIA reform bill introduced …
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Happy July 4th/FOIA anniversary!
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. FOIA anniversary Forty-eight years ago today, in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law with this statement: "This …
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FOIA Friday: IRS ‘Loses’ Emails, Feds Cover-up Stingray Records, and More
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. THE IRS IS BAD AT KEEPING RECORDS, WHICH IS NOT TERRIBLY UNUSUAL Late last Friday, the IRS informed Congress that it had lost a significant amount …
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Freedom of Information Act Rundown: Stingray Surveillance and FERPA abuse
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly FOIA newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. STINGRAYS Last week I mentioned a new, crowd-funded project by MuckRock to collect nationwide data on law enforcement surveillance of cell phones, particularly the use of "stingray" tracking technology. The …
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These Are the 99 FOIA Requests Top Pentagon Officials Had to Approve
Ninety-Nine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by journalists and researchers since last July were flagged by the Department of Defense (DOD) and had to receive “Department Level Clearance” before agencies within DOD could issue a response and/or responsive records.I obtained the latest so-called Department Level Interest list …
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Judge Orders FBI to Conduct New Search for Documents on Internet Activist Aaron Swartz
A federal court judge on Monday ordered the FBI to conduct a new search for documents on Aaron Swartz, the late Internet activist who was being aggressively prosecuted by the federal government for downloading millions of academic articles. Swartz committed suicide in January 2013 before his case had gone to …
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How the “Most Transparent Administration in History” Undercut FOIA and Covered Up Torture
The nonpartisan organization Cause of Action has a new report out for Sunshine Week, "Grading the Government: How the White House Targets Document Requesters." The report includes an April 15, 2009 email Cause of Action obtained last year from the Justice Department written by then White House counsel Greg Craig. …
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