Updated Below on November 14th.
As we recently reported, the Department of Justice was considering amending its FOIA regulations so that it could lie to FOIA requesters and deny the existence of certain documents.
Fortunately, after the condemnation of Senators Grassley, Udall, and Leahy, the ACLU, Openthegovernment.org, and many, many others, the Department of Justice abandoned the proposed regulation.
Despite this FOIA victory, the fight is not over. The DOJ is attempting to push through a dozen other changes to its FOIA regulations, some of which are just as alarming as that which was taken off the table.
For the best overview of all of these unnecessary regulations, see the letter submitted to the Department of Justice by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). EPIC argues that in addition to exceeding the agency’s statutory authority, these brazen proposals:
1) Put an unreasonable burden on the requester
2) Place new constraints on educational institutions and reporters
3) Wholly frustrate the intent of the FOIA (more…)
