Probably the most useful gem the Archive Received from its most recent Knight Open Government Survey, “Glass Half Full” is the cheat sheet that FOIA professionals at the Department of Interior (and likely many other agencies) use to determine if they can provide a document to a FOIA requester as a “discretionary release.” Kudos to Interior for embracing the “presumption in favor of disclosure” mandated by the President and providing this document to the Archive as a discretionary release.
Three things jump out. First, according to this cheat sheet, four of nine of the exemptions are eligible for discretionary release. Five are not. Exemption 2 (low) and exemption 5 are probably the two most important. Last Tuesday, John Podesta testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he called exemptions 2 and 5 as the “we just don’t want to give you the information exemptions.” (more…)
