{"id":60,"date":"2015-06-01T20:53:21","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T20:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/?page_id=60"},"modified":"2025-10-27T23:20:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T23:20:51","slug":"foia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/ethics\/foia\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u2014 James Madison<\/p>\n

\u201cSunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Justice Louis Brandeis<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all who do evil hate the light, and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.\u201d <\/em>\u2014 John 3:20-21.<\/p>\n

The <\/strong>Freedom of Information Act <\/strong><\/span>is a federal law requiring federal agencies to respond to formal requests for information and to release documents if they do not fall under exemptions. Most states also have FOIA laws and nearly every agency at the state and federal level has a designated FOIA officer, which is usually someone in the agency\u2019s public affairs office.<\/p>\n

FOIA laws are often used by the news media, but according to one study, these represent only 7 percent of overall requests.<\/p>\n

History of FOIA\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The federal FOIA law was passed unanimously in 1966, and no one in Congress spoke against the idea. One senator said it was a \u201chistoric victory for the public\u2019s right to know what their government is doing.\u201d\u00a0 In signing the legislation July 4, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson said the bill \u201csprings from one of our most essential principles: A democracy works best when the people have all the information that the security of the nation permits.\u201d On the 5oth anniversary of the FOIA bill, the Nieman Center at Harvard issued this report on its history and changes in its use.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

FOIA and its analogous state records laws have made possible stories revealing the inner workings of government through politicians\u2019 correspondence, policy memos, internal reports and other texts compiled without the input of press secretaries and other handlers…\u00a0But even as FOIA remains vital and relevant, cultural shifts in the past 50 years have exposed its shortcomings, sometimes in ironic ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

State support for FOIA laws was also strong in the 1960s, when over half the states passed FOIA bills and companion legislation about open meetings, called \u201csunshine\u201d laws. Since the 1960s, nearly all states have adopted some form of FOIA and sunshine law.<\/p>\n

It was simply taken for granted<\/strong> that the American people would have a right to know about government. That right was considered uniquely American, something that did not happen in London or Paris, much less Moscow or Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe British government \u2026 is quite openly, and without shame, regarded by both civil servants and political ministers as a sacred mystery (which)\u00a0 on no account (is)\u00a0 to be explained to the uninitiated,\u201d wrote London Times reporter Anthony Howard in 1966. In the United States,\u00a0 on the other hand, \u201call hearts are open, all desires known and no secrets are hidden (at least for long).\u201d\u00a0 — Anthony Howard, “The Bureaucratic Curtain,” New York Times, Oct 23, 1966.<\/p>\n

Since then, every administration has issued its own interpretations of the FOIA. President Bill Clinton\u2019s attorney general, for example, said that documents should only be withheld \u201cif disclosure would be harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 21st century, especially in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks of 9-11, the US government moved to clamp down on openness in government, and Bush administration said documents should be withheld \u201cif there is a sound legal basis for doing so.\u201d The change in wording was considered to be a significant blow to openness in government, and the Bush administration became known for a secretive approach to government.<\/p>\n

\"Response<\/a>

Response (c.2010) to a federal FOIA request to the Office of Surface Mining concerning dangerous conditions of sludge dams in the coal fields of West Virginia. One of about 350 similar pages.<\/p><\/div>\n

In contrast, President Barack Obama, on his first day in office, signed an executive memo<\/a> opening government documents, saying that in the face of doubt, openness should prevail. \u00a0Even so, there were many protests by news organizations and FOIA watchdog groups over the lack of accountability and responsiveness by federal agencies during the Obama administration as well as those before it. The fact that many news reporters and photographers have been turned away from cleanup areas surrounding the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill in the summer of 2010 was cause for a good deal of protest from the media.<\/p>\n

President Obama updated FOIA compliance with an executive order in 2016, telling agencies that all records are presumed open unless classified otherwise. This may reduce some of the backlog around FOIA requests. \u00a0 It’s an improvement, but not much of one, according to an article in The Atlantic, June 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recent history\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2nd Trump administration promised “the most transparent administration in history” on March 3, 2025,<\/a> but according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an expedited FOIA request may \u00a0cost as much as $50,000<\/a> in October, 2025.\u00a0 This “fee bullying” is not new.<\/p>\n

Another ongoing problem is the lack of FOIA officers.\u00a0 For example, in April 2025 the Department of Health and Human Services <\/span>closed<\/a> FOIA offices at the Center for Disease Control, the Office of Personnel Management and the Internal Revenue Service as part of the Trump administration\u2019s mass layoffs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Virginia state FOIA\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

There are many specific cases involving the FOIA that can be found through the Virginia FOIA Council<\/a>, the \u00a0Virginia Coalition for\u00a0Open Government<\/a> and the Reporters committee for Freedom of the Press <\/a>\u2013<\/p>\n

Recently in Virginia, the\u00a0\u00a0FOIA has been used by environmental groups to explore links between county supervisors and gas pipeline<\/a> companies; \u00a0to \u00a0require the release of police video records<\/a>; \u00a0and to verify a “megasite” industrial project <\/a>in Augusta\u00a0County.<\/p>\n

The Virginia State Police have an informative web site <\/a>that helps people access records under the FOIA.\u00a0 It says, in part:<\/p>\n

A public record is any writing or recording regardless of whether it is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio or video recording, or any other format that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be open, and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption or other law applies to those records.<\/p>\n

The policy of FOIA states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities. In furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of access, and that any exemption allowing public records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Police Records requests and databases\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sarah Riley of The Trace filed requests with tw0 dozen police departments around the country for her story “Shoot someone in a major US city and odds are you’ll get away with it<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

First, she made it clear that she wanted data, not pdfs or printouts. She says she learned to not only request information but also to request manuals for the databases used for storing that information.\u00a0 And finally, she learned to anticipate objections to requests for data.\u00a0 Read more at The Trace.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Exemptions to FOIA <\/strong><\/p>\n

Initially the idea behind the federal FOIA was to open all records except in circumstances that were exempt:<\/p>\n