Freedom Of Information Act

In a case that could erect new barriers to public access to government information, the Supreme Court this week was asked to hold that corporations have a right to "personal privacy. " Fortunately, justices from across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical that such a counterintuitive concept could be found either in the law or in a dictionary. At issue is whether the Federal Communications Commission will release information about AT&T under the Freedom of Information Act. That law provides several exemptions, including one for trade secrets and another for information that "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" ?

In a case that could erect new barriers to public access to government information, the Supreme Court this week was asked to hold that corporations have a right to "personal privacy. " Fortunately, justices from across the ideological spectrum appeared skeptical that such a counterintuitive concept could be found either in the law or in a dictionary. At issue is whether the Federal Communications Commission will release information about AT&T under the Freedom of Information Act. That law provides several exemptions, including one for trade secrets and another for information that "could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" ?

NASA released dozens of photographs of the space shuttle Challenger's smashed crew cabin to a New York man who sued, citing the federal Freedom of Information Act, according to a published report. The 48 pictures were taken after the crew cabin was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean in 1986, the New York Times reported in today's editions. The newspaper published one of the photos showing a damaged section of the cabin's bulkhead.

Question: Our covenants, conditions and restrictions state that our association has a pool available for year-round use by all owners. Our pool has been in and out of commission over the last four years and has not been functioning at all since at least December. The board claims to have entered into a contract of more than $11,000 to have the pool repaired but won't let owners see the contract. We also are having problems accessing association documents. If I request to see association-related documents, including the pool contract, under the Freedom of Information Act or California Public Records Act, is the board then required to show them to me and can I make a copy of them?

President Bush, vacationing at his ranch near Crawford, signed a bill aimed at giving the public and the media greater access to information about what the government is doing. The new law toughens the Freedom of Information Act, the first such makeover to the signature public-access law in a decade. It also creates a system for the media and public to track the status of their FOIA requests.

President Clinton signed into law a bill that ensures the public has electronic access to government documents available under the Freedom of Information Act. The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 update the original one, passed 30 years ago when the government owned only 45 computers and provided information only on paper.

Question: Our covenants, conditions and restrictions state that our association has a pool available for year-round use by all owners. Our pool has been in and out of commission over the last four years and has not been functioning at all since at least December. The board claims to have entered into a contract of more than $11,000 to have the pool repaired but won't let owners see the contract. We also are having problems accessing association documents. If I request to see association-related documents, including the pool contract, under the Freedom of Information Act or California Public Records Act, is the board then required to show them to me and can I make a copy of them?

The Clinton Administration promised to make more government information available to the public as it revoked a 12-year-old restriction on the Freedom of Information Act. "Federal departments and agencies should handle requests for information in a customer-friendly manner," President Clinton said. At the Justice Department, officials said the Administration is rescinding a 1981 rule that let federal agencies withhold information whenever they could show "a substantial legal basis."

In October 2001, the Bush administration took an administrative action that would prove sadly symptomatic of its rule. John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, issued a memorandum warning against casual release of information to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Such releases, Ashcroft said, should be made "only after full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial and personal privacy interests that could be implicated."

Presidents don't have indefinite veto power over which records are made public after they've left office, a federal judge ruled. In a narrowly crafted ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush's 2001 executive order which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Here's a not-so-tiny tidbit of data that's getting lost in the White House-driven public frenzy over healthcare legislation this month: The White House Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his presidential predecessor George W. Bush as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican did. Transparency and openness were so important to the new president that on...

In October 2001, the Bush administration took an administrative action that would prove sadly symptomatic of its rule. John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, issued a memorandum warning against casual release of information to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Such releases, Ashcroft said, should be made "only after full and deliberate consideration of the institutional, commercial and personal privacy interests that could be implicated."

President Bush, vacationing at his ranch near Crawford, signed a bill aimed at giving the public and the media greater access to information about what the government is doing. The new law toughens the Freedom of Information Act, the first such makeover to the signature public-access law in a decade. It also creates a system for the media and public to track the status of their FOIA requests.

Presidents don't have indefinite veto power over which records are made public after they've left office, a federal judge ruled. In a narrowly crafted ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush's 2001 executive order which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The National Archives agreed to seal previously public CIA and Pentagon records and to keep silent about the role of U.S. intelligence in the reclassification, according to an agreement released under the Freedom of Information Act. The 2002 agreement, requested three years ago by the Associated Press and released this week, shows archivists were concerned about reclassifying previously available documents -- many of them more than 50 years old -- but nonetheless agreed to keep mum.

FALL RIVER, Mass. -- Ed Lambert, Al Lima and Mike Miozza never thought of themselves as activists, just as regular guys. Then an energy company announced plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in this small community on the Taunton River. The men -- the mayor, a city planner and an engineer -- had nightmare visions of gas igniting into a huge fireball on the river. They asked for government-held reports that studied the threat to the town if the plant or a tanker were attacked.

The Supreme Court, substantially narrowing the Freedom of Information Act, ruled Monday that the government may keep secret the information it gathers during routine business if the information later becomes part of a criminal investigation. Until now, government audits and routine reports had to be disclosed upon request. But after Monday's 6-3 ruling, these reports and documents will be off limits to disclosure as soon as a federal prosecutor or investigator displays interest in them.

In a case being called a "Rock 'n' Roll Watergate," attorneys for a UC Irvine history professor asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to compel the FBI to turn over documents it gathered 17 years ago in an investigation of former Beatle John Lennon.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that the family of a prominent person who had died had a privacy right to object to the government's release of photographs taken at the death scene. In a 9-0 ruling, the court held that the Freedom of Information Act does not require the public release of four close-up photos of the body of Vincent Foster, the White House lawyer and aide to President Clinton who shot himself in 1993. Tuesday's decision reverses the U.S.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management answers about 100 Freedom of Information Act requests a year in California, usually without charging fees for its services. So it came as a shock to Sierra Club representative Edie Harmon of San Diego to learn recently that it would cost her group $25,280 for the BLM to provide the information she had sought in seven FOIA inquiries about off-road vehicle activity in California desert land managed by the agency. At first, she laughed out loud, she said.