Freedom of information in the United States results from

freedom of information legislation Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisf ...

at the

federal level Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General * Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies * Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states ...

and in the

fifty states The United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands. Both the states and the United S ...

Federal level

The federal government is bound by several laws intended to promote openness in government. However, these normally apply only to federal bodies, leaving many institutions exempt compared to their counterparts in other countries.

Federal legislation

The most important was the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

, signed into law on July 4, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson. *

Administrative Procedure Act The Administrative Procedure Act (APA), , is the United States federal statute that governs the way in which administrative agencies of the federal government of the United States may propose and establish regulations, and it grants U.S. federa ...

br>PL 79-404; 1946
*

br>PL 85-619; 1966
*

Federal Advisory Committee Act The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) (), is a United States federal law which governs the behavior of federal advisory committees. In particular, it has special emphasis on open meetings, chartering, public involvement, and reporting. The U.S. ...

br>PL 92-463; 1972
* Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Actbr>PL 93-344; 1974
* Government in the Sunshine Actbr>PL 94-409; 1976
* Inspector General Actbr>PL 95-452; 1978
*

Ethics in Government Act The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 is a United States federal law that was passed in the wake of the Nixon Watergate scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre. It was intended to fight corruption in government. Summary The Ethics in Governme ...

br>PL 95-521; 1978
* Presidential Records Actbr>PL 95-591; 1978
* Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendmentsbr>PL 104-231; 1996

Proposed legislation

FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 (H.R. 1211; 113th Congress) The FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 () is a bill that would amend the Freedom of Information Act in order to make it easier and faster to request and receive information. The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to ...

- would amend the FOIA to speed up the response time and ease of making a "FOIA request", among other changes.

Miscellaneous Authoritative Federal Sources

Executive Order 13233 Executive Order 13233 limited access to the records of former United States Presidents to a higher degree than the previous Order 12667, which it superseded. It was drafted by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and issued by George W. Bu ...

, drafted by Alberto R. Gonzales and issued by George W. Bush on November 1, 2001, is used to limit the FOIA by restricting access to the records of former presidents. * Executive Order 13392: Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.

U.S. Attorney General Memorandums

History

The Holder Memo is part of series of policy memos on how federal agencies should apply FOIA exemptions. Beginning in 1977 with Attorney General Griffin Bell, and continued by Attorney General

William French Smith William French Smith II (August 26, 1917 – October 29, 1990) was an American lawyer and the 74th United States Attorney General. After attaining his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942, Smith went on to join the law firm of Gibson, Dun ...

in 1981 and Attorney General

Janet Reno Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the 78th United States attorney general. She held the position from 1993 to 2001, making her the second-longest serving attorney general, behind only Wi ...

in 1993, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced how the executive branch should approach FOIA, its application, and DOJ's defense of agency's actions. In other words, DOJ's position on when they would defend in a FOIA suit has seesawed for about the last three decades.

=Reno Memo

= The Reno Memo established a "presumption" in favor of disclosure by providing that "it shall be the policy of the Department of Justice to defend the assertion of a FOIA exemption only in those cases where the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would be harmful to an interest protected by that exemption". It encouraged all government agencies to review FOIA requests in a manner most favorable to openness and to release information, even though it might fall within one of the nine exemption categories, if no "foreseeable harm" would result from the disclosure. The goal was to achieve the "maximum responsible disclosure".

=Ashcroft Memo

= On October 12, 2001, Attorney General

John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50t ...

issued a policy memorandum on FOIA to all federal executive agencies. The AG declared the Department of Justice (DOJ) would defend agencies' decisions to withhold documents from a FOIA requester under one of the statute's exemptions "unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records". The Ashcroft Memorandum reversed the Reno standard. Agencies were told that in making discretionary FOIA decisions they should carefully consider the fundamental values behind the exemptions—national security, privacy, government's interests, etc.—and to lean in their favor whenever possible. The Ashcroft Memo with its "sound legal basis" standard encouraged (or at least seemed to support) greater use of FOIA exemptions by federal agency personnel.

=AG Holder Memo

= The Ashcroft Memo was rescinded by Attorney General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African Amer ...

on March 14, 2009. The AG Holder Memo appears to have reinstated the Reno Memo standard and extends the policy. The policy of the executive branch is to be open, responsive, transparent, and accountable. The current memo encourages the maximum disclosure possible in discretionary exemptions and to, whenever possible, reasonably segregate exempt information and release the rest.

State legislation

All fifty U.S. states also have freedom of information laws that govern documents at state and local levels. States have various laws requiring that meetings convened by government agencies be open to the public and sufficiently advertised; these are known as open meeting laws. The provisions of these laws vary considerably by state. Florida, Ohio, and Vermont are known for having pro-access freedom of information laws. Florida was one of the first states to enact an open-government "Sunshine Law". (Florida's nickname is "The Sunshine State".) Other jurisdictions, such as Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, were until recently known for being relatively non-transparent but have since made significant changes to their open government laws to foster greater public access to information. On April 29, 2013, in the case of , the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

found that Virginia's Freedom of Information Act, which grants only Virginia citizens access to public records and does not grant any such right to non-Virginians, does not violate the

Privileges and Immunities Clause The Privileges and Immunities Clause ( U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents a state from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner. Additionally, a right of interstate ...

(which only protects those privileges and immunities that are "fundamental") or the

Commerce Clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...

(specifically, the Dormant Commerce Clause doctrine) of the United States Constitution. State specific laws include: *

California Public Records Act The California Public Records Act (Statutes of 1968, Chapter 1473; currently codified as Chapter 3.5 of Division 7 of Title 1 of the California Government Code) was a law passed by the California State Legislature and signed by then-governor ...

* Illinois Freedom of Information Act *

Missouri Sunshine Law The Missouri Sunshine Law is the common name for Chapter 610 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, the primary law regarding freedom of the public to access information from any public or quasi-public governmental body in the U.S. state of Missour ...

* Tennessee Open Records Act * Texas Public Information Act * Utah Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) *

Washington Public Records Act The Public Records Act (PRA) is a law of the U.S. state of Washington requiring public access to all records and materials from state and local agencies. It was originally passed as a ballot initiative by voters in 1972 and revised several times ...

References

External links

Freedom of Information Act Resources compiled by LLSDC.org

Cross-state comparison of FOIA laws

The WikiFOIAThe Freedom of Information Center at the University of MissouriThe Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida College of Journalism and CommunicationsCitizen Access Project: Guide to Moving to Texas

The Open Government Guide of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press

The National Freedom of Information CoalitionRead Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the Freedom of Information ActU.S. Dept of Justice FOIA Guide
{{Freedom of information Law of the United States Classified information