To avoid honoring FOIA requests, some governments are suing requesters
The process is the punishment. They don't want us to know what they do. "The lawsuits generally ask judges to rule that the records being sought do not have to be divulged. They name the requesters as defendants but do not seek damage awards. Still, the recent trend has alarmed freedom-of-information advocates, who say it’s becoming a new way for governments to hide information, delay disclosure and intimidate critics. “This practice essentially says to a records requester, ‘File a request at your peril,’” said University of Kansas journalism professor Jonathan Peters, who wrote about the issue for the Columbia Journalism Review in 2015, before several more cases were filed. “These lawsuits are an absurd practice and noxious to open government.”"
3 comments:
Processing FOIA requests on the local level was part of my job at Customs. Way above my pay grade, but that's another story. We got requests for stuff that, had we divulged the information, would literally have gotten innocent people killed. I don't believe everything the Government does or knows should be available to the public. I was dealing with peoples' lives. We didn't sue the requester, we just denied the request. It was subjective, case-by-case basis, but there was an appeals process in place that took the request to a higher level. Without oversight FOIA is a stalker's paradise. Requests for agents' home addresses were common. Why do you suppose someone would want that? Government should be transparent, up to a point. But giving requesters information that could endanger lives is beyond the purview of FOIA, and I personally feel there should be some penalty for abusing the system. Not sure if a lawsuit is the answer, but a fine for repeated abuse would certainly be in order.
These requests are not about revealing information that could be dangerous to anyone.
No one wants to reveal information that will hurt innocent people.
This is all about trying to stop people from invoking the FOIA. It is a tactic of intimidation.
Yeah, but I still think it depends upon what the requester wants to know. Repetitive system abusers deserve a dose of intimidation.
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