A City University of New York (CUNY) Law School academic recently published a paper to the April edition of Government Information Quarterly arguing that federal agencies should treat the identities of Freedom of Information Act requesters with the same privacy protections as librarians extend to patrons. Sarah Lamdan, a CUNY associate law library professor,
Last week, at the 2013 National Freedom of Information Day celebration held once again at the Newseum Knight Conference Center in Washington, DC, the American Library Association (ALA) presented its annual James Madison Award posthumously to Aaron Swartz who, before his untimely death in January of this year, was an
Denmark Tech, a college in South Carolina, has a reputation for being on the violent side. After a shooting in October of last year, the local news questioned the students’ safety at Den Tech. A local police officer informed the news team that between twelve and fifteen students get arrested
The Supreme Court has conferred regarding a case involving state freedom of information laws; the hearing left the justices somewhat divided. At its core, the case dealt with issues such as whether freedom of information (FOI) is a taxpayer privilege or a fundamental right and the impact of FOI
Tangled in a federal trial, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is doing all it can to keep controversial documents from the hands of advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). On January 7, 2013, in arguments before court, the DOJ advocated for a protective order and a “claw back”
Last year, a ruling by U.S. Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of New York emphasized the need for electronic discovery practices to be increasingly incorporated into the FOIA process. The suit was brought by the National Day Laborer Organization Network against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency because although the government conducted searches –
In September 2012, the City of Greenville, Michigan made a FOIA request to Eureka Township to see public records related to pumps and a forced sewer main constructed around Baldwin Lake. These documents were requested to verify that the Township was in compliance with the agreements that the city has on
A recent study has found that more federal court complaints were filed to force government entities to abide by the Freedom of Information Act in in the first term of the Obama administration than in second term of the George W. Bush administration. The study was conducted by the Transactional Records
As 2012 winds down, we wanted to take a look back at the past year at a few of the major events of freedom of information in the U.S. March 11 – 16: Sunshine Week celebrated nationwide As part of Sunshine Week 2011, the 13th Annual National Freedom of Information Day Conference was
An article recently published in the Navy Times stated that the Air Force and National Guard may be in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. The Air Force directive requires that all publicly released documents be converted to PDF format or another image based file format. This policy was implemented
