View The State of FOIA on OpenCongress.org

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Contents 1 DOJ Regulation Changes 1.1 Sunlight Response: 1.2 Press: 1.3 Other: 2 Outside Efforts: 3 CIA Rule Changes/Lawsuit 4 State and Local: 4.1 Illinois: 4.2 New York (teacher data reports) 4.3 South Carolina: 4.4 Sunlight 5 International Highlights 5.1 Access Info Resources 5.2 Mexico 6 EPA/Commerce/NARA Portal 7 Milner Decision: 8 Other: 9 Sunlight work:

DOJ Regulation Changes

Sunlight Response:

1. Justice Department’s New FOIA Regulations: Still Worse than Reported - John Wonderlich, 11/18/2011
2. Obama’s DOJ Seeks to Weaken the FOIA- John Wonderlich, 10/28/2012

Press:

1. Report: DOJ worst on transparency- Politico, 2/15/2012
2. Justice Department move on FOIA requests eases headache for administration- The Hill, 11/4/2011.
3. Did DOJ watch too much Fight Club? New proposal could allow agencies to deny documents’ existence - POGO, 10/25/2011
4. Government could hide existence of records under FOIA rule proposal- ProPublica, 10/24/2011
5. Justice Department drops controversial FOIA rule - Daily Caller, 11/3/2011
6. Rule change would allow government to lie about whether records exist - Mother Jones, 10/24/2011
7. Editorial: Obama’s Secrets - Los Angeles Times, 10/31/2011
8. Justice seeks reduction of FOIA access on operations: rule counters Obama directive on disclosure - Washington Times, 10/30/2011

Other:

1. CREW opposes
2. Justice Department Wins Rosemary Award for Worst Open Government Performance in 2011 - National Security Archive, 2/14/2012
3. Holder Responds to Rosemary Award - National Security Archive, 3/12/2012

Outside Efforts:

1. www.whatdotheyknow.com (UK)
2. knowgov.com (US)
3. www.freedominfo.org
4. www.access-info.org
5. Muckrock.com
6. tuderechoasaber.es (Spain)
7. www.asktheeu.org (EU)
8. http://www.alaveteli.org/ (worldwide - Kosovo, EU, Brazil)
9. http://queremossaber.org.br/ (Brazil)
10. http://informatazyrtare.org/ (Kosovo)

CIA Rule Changes/Lawsuit

1. Suit: Spy agency flouting FOIA - Politico, 2/22/12
2. National Security Counselors et. all V Central Intelligence Agency - Complaint pdf (via Politico)
3. The CIA's covert operation against declassification review and Obama's open government - NSA Archive (blog), 2/10/2012
4. Investigative Journalist Jason Leopold Sues FBI, CIA, DOJ claiming FOIA violations - Pubrecord.org, 2/18/2012

State and Local:

Illinois:

1. Chicago Tribune FOIA Portal
2. Access to public information a struggle - The Depaulia (DePaul University).
3. Emanuel Denies public records requests - Chicago Tribune, 11/8/2011

New York (teacher data reports)

1. Why teacher scores should be released - NY Post, 10/23/2010 (by Joel Klein, former chancellor of NYC Schools)
2. Two Chancellors, two different public views on teacher ratings - New York Times, 2/24/2012
3. City to release teacher ratings after union loses suit - New York Times, 2/14/2012

South Carolina:

1. FOIA bill would assure public access - Post and Courier, 2/28/2012
2. Bills would overhaul state FOI laws - Post and Courier, 2/18/2012
3. More restrictive freedom of information law proposed - Post and Courier, 2/16/2012
4. Critics say changes in state FOIA promote secrecy - Beaufort Gazette, 2/15/2012
5. State Legislature Mulls Amending FOIA - Mount Pleasant Patch, 2/16/2012

Sunlight

1. One Year Waiting Period for Illinois’ FOIA “recurrent requestors” - Zubedah Nanfuka, 7/27/2011
2. FOIA Under Attack in Illinois - Emily Miller, 9/6/2011
3. Governor Quinn approves bill to delay FOIA requests - Zubedah Nanfuka, 8/30/2011
4. Government Contractors to be excluded from Kentucky Sunshine Laws - Zubedah Nanfuka, 3/6/2012

International Highlights

Access Info Resources

1. History of Right of Access to Information
2. Access to Information Toolkits
3. Right to Know landing page
4. Overview of 90 FOIA Countries - 9/7/2009

Mexico

1. http://www.ifai.org.mx/
2. Freedom of Information Laws Spreading Around World - WRI, 9/26/2012. "Mexico has one of the best examples of a well-functioning FOIA...information isn't just released to the person who requested it. It's released to everyone."
3. http://www.freedominfo.org/regions/latin-america/mexico/ "Mexico has set a new international standard for transparency legislatiuon with the creation of a Federal Access to Information Institute."
4. Access to Information Law (Spanish)

EPA/Commerce/NARA Portal

1. Agencies plan for governmentwide FOIA portal - Fierce Government, 1/10/2012
2. Freedom of Information Act portal would boost responsiveness, improve efficiency</a> - OMB Watch, 2/7/2012
3. Agencies demo one-stop FOIA portal - Federal News Radio 1/13/2012
4. EPA, Commerce take lead in developing “FOIA Portal” - Investigative Reporting Workshop, 2/16/2012

Milner Decision:

1. Decision Milner V. Department of Navy- PDF
2. Major Transparency Win at the supreme Court - Politico, 3/7/2011
3. Scotus Blog Resource
4. Electronic Frontier Foundation on Milner 12/31/2011

Other:

1. Report: FOIA exemption use increases, processing time decreases - Fierce Government, 1/24/2012
2. CREW Report - Measuring Transparency Under the FOIA: The real story behind the numbers- December 2011
3. Court ruling keeps federal mugshots secret - Politico, 2/22/2012

Sunlight work:

1. Back to the Source - Records not so Open With Obama - Melanie Buck, 11/30/2011
2. New study finds agencies slow to adopt even basic FOIA guidelines - Ellen Miller, 3/14/2011
3. Happy Birthday FOIA: Freedom of information’s future - Daniel Schuman, 7/1/2011
4. SCOTUS: Corporations not people (at least with respect to one FOIA provision) - Daniel Schuman, 3/1/2011
5. The Department of Justice Celebrates Sunshine Week - Matt Rumsey, 3/12/2012