Despite the new era of transparency and open government President Obama promised three years ago, "his administration has been just as secretive—if not more so—than his predecessors, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has become the prime example of his administration’s lack of progress," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) noted last month.
When Attorney General Eric Holder issued new FOIA guidelines in March 2009, he said the Justice Department would only defend government agencies in FOIA lawsuits if it concluded their FOIA denials were truly (not technically) prohibited by law. It will be interesting to see how the Justice Department responds to this lawsuit. Whether or not a Justice Department attorney mounts a spirited defense defending the government's practices should prove an excellent indicator of how seriously the rank and file takes Holder's guidelines.
On Monday, August 6, 1945, after six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities,...
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