FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: More complaining about FOIA processing

FOIA News (2015-2023)Allan BlutsteinComment

If You Want The Government To Hand Over Documents, You Might Want To Retain A Lawyer

from the get-busy-suing-or-get-busy-waiting dept

By Tim Cushing, Techdirt, Nov. 16, 2018

Fifty years after the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, the letter of the law lives on but its spirit has been crushed. While it's definitely preferable to having no opportunity to demand government agencies hand over requested documents, it's not the significant improvement it was promised to be.

As was noted here four years ago, the government has pretty much adopted a presumption of opacity that necessitates the filing of lawsuits. This contradicts the law's intentions, as well as proclamations made by President Obama, who declared his administration the "most transparent." This assertion fell flat when government agencies engaged in FOIA business as usual and Obama did nothing to hold them accountable.

Read more here.