mendax.org

Twenty six years ago, people like Ralph Nader (new book!, new tour!) gave us the Freedom of Information Act. For my money, it’s one of the best laws on the books. It says that The Man has to let you see his documents. Unless he has one of several official reasons not to. Which he always does. So you have to take him to court. But, you know, you can win there. It’s just a pain in the ass. Anyway, my point is, now people like John Ashcroft are trying to take it away.

[UPDATE: An alert reader has brought to my attention the actual DOJ memo, available on the web. The final link of this news brief, the memo is provided along with some contextual information. While it's clear that my knee-jerk overreaction was a little sloppy, despite the nice words from Justice it should be remembered that this new policy represents a significant shift away from transparency--and that's no good, as far as democracy is concerned.]

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