More than 300 public-records lawsuits filed in Obama's first year (FOIA)

[tekisui]

Source: Washington Post


More than 300 individuals and groups have sued the government to get records in the year since President Obama pledged that his administration would be the most open in history.

In case after case, the plaintiffs say little has changed since the Bush administration years, when most began their quests for records. Agencies still often fight requests for disclosure, contending that national security and internal decision-making need to be protected.

The lawsuits cover a wide range of issues. A retired Marine wants to review soldier autopsies to learn whether the Pentagon has issued defective body armor. A Texas law professor questions whether the location of the U.S.-Mexico border fence unfairly harmed minority landowners. Closer to home, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation continues its battle to learn whether agencies are properly punishing those who destroy wetlands.

Despite the administration's opening scores of documents, court dockets show a slight increase in the number of lawsuits -- 319 -- filed under the Freedom of Information Act since Obama was sworn into office last January. In the final two years of the Bush administration, by comparison, there were 278 records suits filed in 2007 and 298 in 2008. People seeking records can sue only after the government repeatedly rejects their requests, usually after months of attempts and appeals.

The White House disputes the numbers in the court logs. It says the Justice Department's own figures show that 328 records lawsuits were filed in 2008 and 306 in 2009. Justice Department officials say the difference could be because some cases are mislabeled in court records, and because others never show up in the agency's count because the department does not get involved.


more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012602048.html

[Statistical]

1. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. That's not really what the article says.

"Meredith Fuchs, an open-records expert and general counsel at the nonprofit National Security Archive, said she has seen improvement in the amount of material some agencies provide. But in cases her group has taken to court, "it's more of a mixed bag" with the Obama administration. She suspects that the administration reflexively defends decisions made years earlier to withhold records.

"It's hard to shift the battleship," Fuchs said. "
...

"Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad to be getting some records," Gilman said. "But the delay has been very frustrating. This Obama administration was working on decisions related to the wall in the spring. . . . Now the wall is pretty much built, so it's actually too late to use this information to shape those decisions."
...
"Mueller, of the Chesapeake group, said he has some sympathy for the president's team.

"Turning over a new leaf is more difficult than they had expected," he said."

[ellenfl]

3. so apprently they are holdovers from the bush years.

are the denying attorneys also holdovers from the bush years?

ellen