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Sunshine Week activities for 2008 will be aimed at the campaign trail according to this press release.
It all boils down to this. An informed citizenry makes responsible decisions. It becomes informed through government transparency. Government transparency takes place when government disclosure laws are enacted and then enforced. Hopefully, candidates for all offices will do more than just give these ideals lip service.
Pennyslvania's attempt to change its anti-requester Right to Know law is slowly coming to a close. The State Senate passed its version of a new law and the House should do so soon. Then the bills will be reconciled.
The biggest criticism is that the law doesn't cover the legislative branch of the government. The Federal FOIA doesn't cover Congress, so this isn't something out of the ordinary even though some states, like Maryland, do cover the legislative branch in their public access laws. While not coverning the legislature isn't great, the Senate bill is still a big improvement over the current Right to Know law.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation ("EFF") has received a preliminary injunction against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ("ODNI") in its case brought concerning the EFF FOIA request for ODNI's communications with Congress and industry regarding pending legislation that would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA").
EFF had made the requests this summer and sought expedited processing. ODNI granted expedited processing, but didn't actually expedite their processing--forcing EFF to sue and have United States District Judge Susan Illston for the Northern District of California to give the ODNI a date to release the documents to EFF. The Court ordered a partial release to be made on November 30, 2007 and a final release, with an affidavit setting forth its basis for withholding documents, to be made on December 10, 2007.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the government's bid to overturn the Court's decision in a FOIA case brought by Jessie Trentadue. the government argued that the order will violate the privacy of lower-level government employees and allow Trentadue to engage in unwarranted "fishing expeditions." The suit seeks documents held by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, an agency that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by federal law enforcement officers. A Utah federal district Judge upheld the government's denial of records, but a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit ruled in September that most of the information must be disclosed.
My original analysis of the original decision can be found here.
The American Bar Association has a new book out entitled "Access to Government in the Computer Age: An Examination of State Public Records Laws." You can read more about it here.
Here's another article about access to adoption records.
The Department of Justice has posted its summaries of new FOIA decisions decided by Federal Courts in September of 2007.
Talking Points Memo has this exhaustive report on the Bush Administration and Government Transparency. I know my readers will find it hard to believe that the current administration is not a strong believer in open transparent government.
The Washington Post has received Jerry Falwell's FBI File pursuant to the FOIA. More details can be found here.
This article gives further analysis into the FOIA lawsuit I recently brought against the State Department.
And here's one from Time Magazine's blog and one from Congressional Quarterly.
